Trump is back — and with him, the risk that the U.S. could unplug Europe from the digital world.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is forcing Europe to reckon with a major digital vulnerability: The U.S. holds a kill switch over its internet.
As the U.S. administration raises the stakes in a geopolitical poker game that began when Trump started his trade war, Europeans are waking up to the fact that years of over-reliance on a handful of U.S. tech giants have given Washington a winning hand.
The fatal vulnerability is Europe’s near-total dependency on U.S. cloud providers.
Cloud computing is the lifeblood of the internet, powering everything from the emails we send and videos we stream to industrial data processing and government communications. Just three American behemoths — Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — hold more than two-thirds of the regional market, putting Europe’s online existence in the hands of firms cozying up to the U.S. president to fend off looming regulations and fines.
This sounds a lot like, “build your own servers and topple another US industry.”
Another short-term decision by America could lead to more long-term loss of wealth and influence.
“Stop shooting ourselves in the feet!”
So many decisions being made are very isolationist, and that never works well for the one shutting everyone else out. But who looks at history, right?
Honestly, as an American living in Silicon Valley, I would be overjoyed if Europe became the primary kickstarter for open source alternatives to the existing US corporate infrastructure, that bends to the knees of the Federal government. Even here at home, myself and some of my co-workers aren’t too keen on the existing status quo tools because there are too many caveats - from rent seeking subscriptions to the inability to verify if something is tampered with.
In the same way Valve saw how having all their eggs in the Windows basket led them to dive head first into linux development, I hope the EU’s realization of the risks in the US tech sector lead it to developing unified, well funded OSS alternatives. I would certainly install them.
as a European formerly living in silicon valley… we are working on it. and thanks to the orange turd in charge it’s been fast-tracked. and when all hell breaks loose, we’ll just stop sending ASML machines your way. best of luck idiots (not all of you)
Hey, just put the word out for my work visa, please! XD
they’re expanding, so most likely hiring. the world can’t get enough of the 2 nm chips (not much more smaller after that for probably a decade).
they’re building machines as fast as they can. I’m a CNC machinist and have made plenty of parts for them and have friends that assemble cleanroom parts for them.
plenty of work to go around.
you don’t even need to speak Dutch there, English is fine.
and guess what? we even have great public transportation.
come one come all, apply today!
and get away from that hellhole the US has become. it used to be us (one for all, all for one), now it’s just them the elite.
I lived there 24 yrs, from the golden age of silicon valley (late 90s) to its inevitable enshittification. glad I got out before it’s demise.
I’m currently hosed by the fact that I am in the middle of completing my Electrical Engineeing degree (approx. 2 years left), and I don’t believe my credits would be transferable to an institution across the Atlantic (never mind the cost, shudder), so I can’t even think about escaping until at least 2027.
If there’s a better way forward so I can safely leave the nation and still achieve my degree, I’m all ears, but at least to me it seems my hands are a bit tied.
I’m not too knowledgable about schooling and transfer credits but I would def send a letter (or email) to ASML describing your current school (perhaps not political) situation and who knows, maybe they pay for the whole ride. paid learning is a thing here.