Europe has a chance it cannot afford to miss

On digital independence, computing power, and why now is the right moment to take the lead

Paul Kunneman, co-founder Project Enki | July 2026

We use computers to do valuable things, in our work and in our personal lives. Some of that value is created on our own devices. But most of it is created somewhere else, in the cloud, in data centers. Data centers that are often not located in Europe, or that are located in Europe but run software and services provided by companies from outside Europe.

That means we do not control a large part of our own value creation. We do not own that infrastructure. We merely have a right to use it. We are, in effect, renting.

In February 2025, the United States sanctioned the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. By May, his Microsoft account was gone and he was working from a Swiss email provider. Microsoft says it never suspended services to the court, and in February 2026 it asked the UK Parliament to correct testimony it had given about who took the decision. That dispute is still open. What is clear is that the decision was taken outside Europe, and that the court had no say in it. The ICC has since begun moving off Microsoft altogether.

For many organisations, this was a confronting moment. What happened to the court could happen to a law firm or a financial services provider just as easily. But it was also something else: a moment of realisation that things do not have to be this way. That Europe has the means to organise this differently. The question is not whether it can be done, but when we start.

Why computing power has become so important

A lot of computing work depends on how large and powerful the machine doing the work is. Training a frontier AI model on a laptop would be impossible, or take millions of years. That work is done in data centers: large clusters of hardware that can efficiently process, store and serve enormous amounts of data. Even there, training a competitive frontier model takes months, but at least it can be done.

Most of the software we use every day works on a model where the heavy lifting happens in the cloud and we provide input and enjoy the output on our own devices. A data center is, in itself, an industrial facility that consumes a lot of power. But the work it does is far more efficient than if we tried to do the same work on our personal devices. Building data centers allows us to benefit from modern software in the most efficient way possible, provided we carefully consider where and how we build, power and cool them.

Artificial intelligence has increased our dependence on computing power even further. AI helps doctors with diagnoses, lawyers with contract analysis, engineers with design. Every organisation that wants to be taken seriously is integrating AI into its processes. Whoever owns that computing power sets the rules, the prices and the terms of access. That makes it a strategic resource, and an opportunity for those who build it at the right moment.

Computing power is the raw material from which economic value and competitive advantage are made. Europe has everything it needs to produce that raw material itself.

How the dependency works, and why it can be reversed

Europe's dependence on foreign digital infrastructure has three concrete dimensions. Each dimension is also an opportunity: a reason why Europe can build a structurally stronger position.

Legal: from vulnerable to protected

When business data is managed by a US company, that data falls under US law. The CLOUD Act requires American companies to hand over data to US authorities when ordered to do so, even when that data is physically located outside the United States. That is a vulnerability that the International Criminal Court case made very concrete. But it is also an opportunity: European companies that store their data on European infrastructure, under European law, hold a fundamentally stronger legal position. The GDPR, the AI Act, the European legal system, these are not bureaucratic burdens but competitive advantages for those who use them deliberately. European customers increasingly want that certainty. That demand means there is a market for homegrown IT companies and services.

Economic: from tenant to owner

Roughly seventy percent of the European cloud market sits with three American companies. That market concentration makes price negotiations one-sided and lock-in is real. But there is another way to look at that number: it is a market of enormous scale that is largely served by players from outside Europe. That is not just a risk. It is a major opportunity for European companies willing to invest in their own capacity. The demand is there. The customers are there. What is missing is the supply. And a market where demand far exceeds supply is exactly where you want to be as a builder. European software and cloud companies like Mistral and Odoo are already working hard on this, but they remain constrained by the limited amount of AI data center capacity available on the continent.

Strategic: from consumer to builder

The direction AI takes is determined by the companies that train the largest models and deploy the most computing power. Right now, those are almost exclusively American and Chinese companies. But Europe has something unique: the strictest privacy legislation in the world, broad public trust in European institutions, and a growing market of businesses and governments that consciously choose infrastructure that meets European standards. Those who invest in European AI infrastructure now are building the standard for what sovereign, sustainable computing means. That is a position that is hard to copy.

Europe has the strictest privacy legislation, decades of offshore engineering experience and more offshore wind already in the water than anywhere outside China. That is a strong starting position for building capacity of its own.

The opportunity that is there for the taking

The market is still open

The market for European sovereign AI infrastructure barely exists yet. That is not a shortcoming. It is an open door. The companies and governments that are now looking for European alternatives to American cloud providers are finding almost none. Whoever fills that gap first sets the standards and builds a lead that takes years to close. This is the moment to build, not to wait for the market to consolidate further around players from outside Europe.

Two transitions that can strengthen each other

Europe has wind farms producing energy that goes to waste because the electricity grid cannot absorb it. At the same time, Europe has growing demand for AI computing power that cannot be served because there is no space or power available anywhere. Two problems that appear unrelated, but that together form an elegant solution. Computing power that runs on energy that would otherwise go to waste is not just sustainable. It is additional: it creates something that would simply not exist without that connection. The energy transition and the digital transition are often seen as two separate challenges. They are each other's solution.

Europe already has the building blocks

Offshore platforms, seawater cooling, modular data center infrastructure, subsea cables. All of these technologies already exist and are proven. What is new is the combination. Europe also has decades of expertise in offshore engineering, one of the strongest maritime industries in the world, and the wind farms to supply renewable energy. The building blocks are in place. They just need to be put together in the right way. That is not a scientific breakthrough. It is engineering and courage.

The energy transition and the AI revolution are often seen as two separate challenges. They are each other's solution, in the right combination.

From regulation to infrastructure

Europe has produced impressive regulation in recent years: the GDPR, the AI Act, the Data Governance Act. That regulation creates the conditions for a strong European digital ecosystem. But regulation without underlying infrastructure is a promise without a foundation. EU AI gigafactories and initiatives like GAIA-X show that the ambition is there. The challenge now is execution, and execution requires private parties that build fast, alongside public initiatives that set the conditions. A good example of this is the European open-source model Soofi.

The question is not whether Europe can do this. The knowledge is there. The capital is there. The market is there. The question is whether we feel the urgency to start now, rather than waiting while the market consolidates further around players from outside Europe. Every year we wait is a year where others set the standards.

This is the moment

An economy that rents its digital foundation does not have a foundation. It has a rental contract. But that rental contract can be converted into ownership, if Europe takes the step now to invest in its own capacity.

The infrastructure of the future is being built right now. The companies that invest in European AI infrastructure today will set the standards and the rules for the decades ahead. That is not a threat. It is an invitation to everyone who believes that Europe can build its digital future on its own terms.

Europe has plenty of renewable energy. Europe has the technology. Europe has the market. What is needed now is the willingness to make the connection and to build.

Paul Kunneman is co-founder of Project Enki, a Dutch company building AI data centers at sea, directly next to offshore wind farms. Project Enki works with Vattenfall and ABB on Europe's first offshore AI infrastructure.

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