US tech giants warn Europe that ditching US tech giants could cost €115B

Some of America's largest tech companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Meta, have warned European governments that reducing reliance on US cloud providers could cost them an estimated €115 billion over the next decade. This prediction comes from a study commissioned by CCIA Europe, a lobbying group representing the interests of these US tech giants.

The research, conducted by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), claims that the European Commission's proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) could impose substantial costs on Europe, significantly higher than the Commission's initial estimate of €18 billion. The report argues that restricting cloud services to European providers would lead to significant costs for both governments and businesses, with direct public-sector costs estimated at €33.3 billion and private sector costs potentially reaching €80 billion.

However, this €80 billion figure assumes the Commission extends sovereignty requirements beyond public procurement to cover 25% of cloud workloads in essential private-sector industries, which is not guaranteed. The study also highlights that the proposed legislation could force businesses to migrate away from existing cloud infrastructure, resulting in expensive software redevelopment projects.

Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria, Finland, and Ireland would face some of the highest costs, with the report estimating €1,711 per worker over ten years. CCIA Europe urges EU governments to limit sovereignty restrictions to sensitive workloads and adopt risk-based technical safeguards, rather than imposing strict requirements based on corporate origin or personnel nationality.