New Study Reveals the Blueprint for European Digital Sovereignty: Computing Power, Cloud, Open Source and Capital
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Europe’s technological future will not be decided by innovation alone, but by who owns, scales, and controls the infrastructure behind it. A new whitepaper, “Digital Sovereignty: Technology Leadership Made in Europe”, from GITEX AI EUROPE in partnership with research firm LUE, argues that without decisive action, Europe risks remaining structurally dependent upon the systems shaping its digital economy.
Set against an ICT market now valued at €1.02 trillion, the study outlines four key pillars: computing power, sovereign cloud infrastructure, open-source technologies, and access to capital as the foundation for long-term competitiveness. Taken together, they form what the report frames as a new industrial compact which aligns technological capability with economic resilience.
Compute as the New Industrial Power
Artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining Europe’s infrastructure demands with the current capacity unlikely to keep pace. While data centre expansion is projected to grow 70% by 2030, AI driven workloads are expected to outstrip that growth, placing sustained pressure on compute availability and energy systems.
Germany alone may need to triple its data centre capacity by the end of the decade, requiring up to €60 billion investment. Programmes such as the EU’s €200 billion InvestAI initiative are already responding by funding the development of AI gigafactories equipped with over 100,000 specialised GPUs and designed to support industry and research at a huge scale.
The report makes clear that expansion at this level cannot happen in isolation. Compute growth must be matched by parallel investment in clean energy infrastructure, reinforcing the structural link between digital capacity and Europe’s broader energy transition.
Sovereign Cloud Not Cloud Dependency
At the same time, cloud adoption across Europe is accelerating rapidly with usage expected to rise from current levels, where around 40% of enterprises already rely heavily on cloud environments, to more than 90% by 2028. Yet despite this growth, approximately 70% of the market remains controlled by non-European hyperscalers, exposing a fundamental imbalance between usage and ownership.
The whitepaper calls for a shift toward “sovereign-first” cloud architectures that prioritise jurisdictional control and data integrity within European systems. The objective is not to retreat from global systems, rather to ensure that participation does not come at the cost of autonomy.
Open Source As Europe’s Strategic Edge
Open-source technologies are positioned as a practical mechanism for achieving this balance, offering more flexibility and reduced dependence on proprietary vendors. By enabling organisations to adapt to and migrate across platforms more freely, open standards create the conditions for both innovation and control.
Initiatives such as the Sovereign Cloud Stack (SCS), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, exemplify this approach in providing a shared framework that strengthens collaboration while anchoring technological sovereignty within Europe.
Backing Europe’s Deep-Tech Builders
However, infrastructure is only one side of the equation. The report highlights a persistent structural weakness in funding, noting that Europe attracts just 5% of global venture capital despite its depth of engineering talent. Without stronger growth-stage investment, even the most promising companies risk scaling elsewhere.
To address this, the study calls for more coordinated public-private financing models capable of supporting deep-tech companies beyond early-stage development. Existing programmes, including Germany’s €1 billion KfW DeepTech Future Fund and the €3 billion IPCEI initiative focused on cloud and semiconductors, embody this necessary shift toward more strategic capital deployment, but the gap remains significant.
GITEX AI EUROPE 2026: From Strategy to Execution
These challenges and opportunities will take centre stage at GITEX AI EUROPE 2026, held from 30 June to 1 July 2026 at Messe Berlin. Bringing together more than 1,400 companies and participants from over 100 countries, the event positions itself as a central platform for aligning industry, investment, and policy across AI, deep tech, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure.
Access and Registration
Registration is now live, with discounted passes available for a limited time.