EU leaders are pushing for tech sovereignty to cut reliance on US giants, but creating a local Microsoft is unrealistic. Instead, the bloc's strategy targets modest wins like expanding data centers and cloud competition. This shift mimics previous defense stock surges, offering investors a way to profit from political will even if total self-sufficiency remains unlikely.

Cloud spending in Europe should reach €200bn by 2028, yet Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft currently control 70 percent of that market. Local players like OVHcloud possess a fraction of that scale, but capturing just 1 percent of US sales would double their revenue. This disparity creates a massive opening for smaller European providers and engineering firms.

Infrastructure projects, including a €75bn SoftBank data center in France, benefit energy and equipment firms like Schneider Electric. However, fragmented capital pools hinder the growth of local giants. Alphabet's planned $190bn capital expenditure for the year is enough to purchase Orange twice, illustrating the scale gap that prevents European companies from competing directly.

Political pressure forces US providers to partner with local firms like SAP, Thales, and Capgemini to appear more European. Orange argues that the EU must allow more consolidation to build companies capable of mammoth investments. Without deeper capital markets, European firms cannot match the spending power of their American rivals.