Most European businesses rely on US tech giants, study warns

Euronews

2 days ago

About three-quarters of Europe's publicly listed companies rely on American technology firms to operate their businesses, a new analysis has found.
Swiss cloud provider Proton analysed more than 9,600 publicly listed companies in Europe, using domain name system (DNS) searches to identify which email platform the companies use. That gave the researchers insight into which programmes a company is likely to use for its computing services, like email or calendar.
The analysis found that Iceland, Norway, Ireland, Finland, and Sweden have the highest reliance on US tech companies. More than 90 per cent of their companies rely on American tech giants for their cloud services.
On the other end of the spectrum were Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia, with 16 per cent, 39 per cent and 43 per cent reliance on US tech, respectively.
Countries that are more reliant on the US tech stack could be exposed to AI training, foreign pressure, and what Proton described as 'warrantless surveillance'.
'Digital sovereignty is an illusion when Europe's infrastructure is controlled from abroad,' the report said. 'To secure its future, Europe must invest in European solutions'.
The Proton report comes as experts voice concerns about national security risks that could arise from using foreign tech companies for cloud services, telling Euronews Next that there are concerns that the Trump administration could compel tech companies to share sensitive data.
Some governments, for example Denmark and the Netherlands, are looking to swap providers.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom's competition authority found last week that US-based cloud providers Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) hold a combined 60 per cent to 80 per cent of the country's cloud market share, saying their dominance hurts competition.
Where is dependency the highest?
The study dove into the country specifics for the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, and Portugal. In these countries, larger companies tended to be more reliant on US tech..
In the UK, France, and Spain, for example, the country's largest companies – those worth over €200 billion –were entirely dependent on US tech.
Tech companies in the UK and France were particularly dependent on the US, with 94 per cent and 80 per cent of their software companies using the American tech stack, respectively.
The UK's reliance on American services 'is shocking for a country home to a tech sector worth $1.1 trillion [€954 billion], the largest in Europe and the third largest globally,' the report said.
Other highly dependent industries include the UK's banking and telecommunications sectors; 95 percent of these companies use US cloud services.
The report also claims that six Spanish sectors are '100 per cent' reliant on US tech, including critical energy and banking. All of Ireland's biotech and pharmaceuticals sector use American tech, the report found.
The sectors that were less likely to see US Big Tech penetration included banks in France, real estate in Spain, telecommunications in Portugal, and automotives in Ireland, where fewer than 50 per cent of those companies use a US-based service.
The findings come amid a push from the French government for 'strategic autonomy,' the report said. France's reliance on Big Tech services leaves it vulnerable to 'external influence, instability and surveillance'.
What is the concern about American restrictions coming from?
Pressure on Big Tech companies from the US government could pose challenges for European countries and industries that are more reliant on American services.
During his first administration, US President Donald Trump signed the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD), which allows law enforcement to subpoena US-based technology companies for data stored on any server in the world to help them investigate serious crimes.
Privacy experts previously told Euronews Next that while Trump hasn't specified whether he would invoke the law to compel companies to send his administration data, there are concerns that officials could force US tech companies to stop providing services in Europe.
If this happens, it could create 'massive disruptions to public services,' the experts previously said.
A representative from Microsoft France also told a French Senate committee last month that the company could not protect user data from an injunction under the CLOUD Act.
Trump has also struck down security decisions enacted under former US President Joe Biden. In January, he demanded the resignation of an oversight board that oversaw data transfers between the US and the European Union, making it a key data privacy watchdog.
Without the framework in place, thousands of EU businesses and public agencies might need to stop using Google, Microsoft, or Amazon for their cloud services, European privacy groups have warned.