Europe unveils tech sovereignty package amid U.S. tech reliance concerns

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a slew of new rules intended to bolster homegrown chips, AI and cloud services as the bloc scrambles to develop tech sovereignty amid huge reliance on products and services from the U.S. and China.

The proposals, which must be approved by all 27 member states, include new actions to bolster advanced chip manufacturing and homegrown cloud computing.

As geopolitical tensions across the globe have ramped up, there have been growing calls for Europe to diversify away from non-European providers of critical tech, including U.S. tech companies, which currently dominate the European market.

“We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

CNBC previously reported that the European Union was considering rules that would restrict its member governments’ use of U.S. cloud providers to handle sensitive data.

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