When most people think of national security, they picture borders, defence alliances, aircraft carriers and troops.
But in 2026, one of the most fragile front lines sits somewhere far less visible: the cloud platforms and digital infrastructure powering health systems, public services, manufacturers, financial institutions and critical operations across the UK and Europe.
And a new, uncomfortable question is now echoing across cybersecurity circles:
Could a future U.S. administration pressure hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to restrict or suspend services to Europe, and what would happen if they did?
To some, it sounds dramatic. But global events are already showing us that access to digital platforms can be used as political leverage.
Starlink: A Real Example of Digital Infrastructure as Geopolitical Leverage
A stark precedent exists. During U.S.- Ukraine negotiations over access to critical minerals, American officials reportedly threatened to restrict Ukraine’s access to Starlink, a reminder that essential digital infrastructure, even when privately operated, lies firmly within geopolitical influence.
If satellite connectivity can be pulled into diplomacy, then so can cloud compute, identity platforms, security services and AI capabilities. These systems underpin a significant percentage of Europe’s operations. They are embedded, indispensable… and external.
A Growing Dependence on Non-Domestic Clouds
Across the UK and EU there has been an aggressive shift to cloud-first strategies:
- Government departments depend on U.S.-owned hyperscalers for day-to-day public services.
- Manufacturers run cloud-integrated SCADA, MES and IIoT platforms for production and safety.
- Healthcare, education, and councils rely on Azure-hosted or AWS-hosted applications.
- Identity, analytics, collaboration tools and backups are increasingly cloud-tethered.
This isn’t criticism, cloud delivers undeniable value. But it raises a strategic question:
What happens when national infrastructure relies on platforms governed by another nation’s legal, regulatory, and political system?
Hyperscalers: Titans of the Internet and a Strategic Vulnerability
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud collectively supply around 70% of Europe’s cloud infrastructure. These platforms support everything from ecommerce and manufacturing to policing systems, hospital platforms and defence supply chains.
But concentration brings vulnerability, especially when combined with U.S. extraterritorial laws such as the CLOUD Act, allowing American authorities access to data managed by U.S. companies, regardless of location.
So the real question isn’t, “Could a president turn the lights off?” It’s: How much influence does the U.S. structurally hold over Europe’s digital backbone?
Could a U.S. President Actually “Turn Europe Dark”?
A U.S. president cannot simply push a button and shut off Europe. But the reality is more subtle and far more plausible.
U.S. law already grants the American government wide-ranging access to data handled by U.S. companies, even when hosted in Europe. In a national-security context, a president could apply pressure through export controls, restrictions on support, limitations on updates, suspending certain services, or halting key technology transfers. Even relatively small constraints, such as delaying patches, pausing AI model access, or restricting advanced features, could cascade through European companies, public services, industrial systems and cloud-dependent infrastructure.
So, while a dramatic “blackout order” is not realistic, the ability to exert meaningful digital pressure absolutely exists and that is precisely why Europe is accelerating efforts toward digital sovereignty.
Why Europe Is Talking About Digital Sovereignty
Europe’s dependency on U.S. digital infrastructure is now recognised as a strategic vulnerability, not merely a commercial choice. This is why digital sovereignty is becoming a defining EU priority in 2026.
Europe’s dependency, in hard numbers
- U.S. hyperscalers run ~70% of EU cloud infrastructure.
- 90% of European smartphones use U.S. operating systems.
- OpenAI sets the global standard for AI models — with European equivalents years behind.
- Starlink holds a near-monopoly on satellite connectivity across large parts of Europe.
- Nvidia controls around 80% of the high-end AI chip market.
- Europe’s digital public sphere, social media, is dominated by Meta and X.
Put simply: digital dependency has become geopolitical dependency.
What the EU Is Doing About It
Europe has now moved from discussion to strategy. A clear example came from France, which announced in Jan 2026 that 2.5 million civil servants will stop using U.S.-owned videoconferencing platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex and GoTo Meeting by 2027. They will instead move to Visio, a sovereign French alternative developed as part of France’s Suite Numérique programme, a national effort to replace U.S. online services such as Gmail and Slack with European technologies.
According to the French government, the purpose is to end reliance on non-European platforms and guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications. It’s one of the clearest signals yet that member states are no longer willing to leave core digital services dependent on external jurisdictions and it marks a tangible step from political rhetoric to operational sovereignty in action.
These national measures sit within a broader EU strategy to strengthen sovereignty and reduce dependency on foreign-controlled digital platforms.
Key initiatives include:
AI Gigafactories Initiative
A flagship programme announced by the European Commission to expand Europe’s domestic capability in AI compute, data infrastructure and model development.
The Cloud and AI Development Act (upcoming)
A legislative framework designed to support sovereign cloud infrastructure, regulate hyperscaler dominance, and boost EU-controlled AI capabilities.
Sovereign Cloud Standards
New procurement and certification requirements ensuring cloud workloads are governed exclusively by European law, even if the underlying technology stack is American.
The European Chips Act
A multi-year investment programme aiming to double Europe’s semiconductor capacity to 20% of global output by 2030.
GAIA-X and Cloud Federation Projects
Attempts to build a secure, interoperable, partially sovereign European cloud ecosystem. This however is still maturing, but symbolically important for long-term autonomy.
But Europe’s solutions are long-term – not immediate
- AI gigafactories: 3–5 years before mature capability
- Cloud & AI Development Act: meaningful impact 2027–2030
- Chips Act: late 2020s onwards
- GAIA-X: still evolving
- Sovereign cloud initiatives: currently inconsistent across member states
Which means:
– These initiatives will reshape Europe’s technological future but none of them address the short-term geopolitical exposure that organisations face today.
– UK organisations cannot depend on Brussels or Westminster to mitigate immediate risk. Operational resilience must be built at organisational level now, not in 2030.
What This Means for UK & EU Cyber Resilience
Rather than panic about hypothetical shutdown scenarios, organisations should focus on practical digital resilience. The issue isn’t fear, it’s preparation. Real risk comes from disruption: geopolitical, technical or cyber-driven. And that means understanding where your organisation is exposed today, not in five years when EU sovereignty programmes finally mature.
Here’s what UK and European organisations should be doing now:
1. Understand Your Cloud Dependencies in Plain English
Most organisations lack a full picture of how deeply their operations rely on individual cloud providers or cloud-dependent services. Before you can reduce risk, you need visibility of:
- Which workloads depend on a single hyperscaler
- Where identity, analytics, AI or backup services rely on U.S.-owned platforms
- What critical processes need continuous cloud connectivity
- Where your supply chain is exposed, because even if you diversify, your key suppliers or software partners may still depend entirely on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
Understanding both internal and supplier-side dependencies frequently exposes hidden vulnerabilities that wouldn’t otherwise appear in a standard IT risk review. A simple dependency map often reveals the biggest risks and quickest wins.
2. Build Hybrid Cloud and Private Cloud Resilience
Given that the major hyperscalers are all U.S.-based, “multi-cloud” alone does not meaningfully reduce geopolitical risk.
The focus instead should be on designing hybrid cloud, private cloud, and robust DR strategies that limit exposure while keeping the flexibility businesses rely on today.
This can include:
- Running critical operational systems on private cloud infrastructure
- Keeping essential manufacturing, OT and IoT services able to operate locally or at the edge
- Using public cloud selectively — for workloads where sovereignty isn’t a concern
- Building disaster recovery plans that ensure continuity even if cloud services are unavailable
- Leveraging private-cloud-as-a-service models (e.g., HPE GreenLake, Dell APEX) to gain cloud-style consumption with predictable costs and complete data sovereignty
Resilience isn’t abandoning cloud, it’s ensuring your operations don’t depend on a single point of geopolitical failure
3. Strengthen Data Governance and Sovereignty Controls
True digital sovereignty isn’t about holding encryption keys — it’s about controlling where data sits, who can access it, and which legal system governs it.
To strengthen sovereignty, organisations should:
- Keep sensitive or regulated data stored within UK-based or EU-governed environments
- Use private cloud for critical workloads requiring guaranteed jurisdictional control
- Ensure operational logs, event data and manufacturing telemetry remain accessible locally
- Maintain independent monitoring and governance systems that aren’t tied to a single cloud provider
- Ensure AI training data or sensitive datasets remain governed by UK/EU controls
This is exactly where private cloud, edge compute and hybrid architectures deliver strategic advantages, aligning operational performance with compliance and sovereignty expectations.
4. Model Disruption Scenarios, Especially the Uncomfortable Ones
European cyber authorities increasingly recommend scenario modelling:
- Loss of a cloud region for 24–72 hours
- API, identity or authentication failure
- Delayed patching or AI-model access
- Restrictions on advanced compute or export-controlled chips
- Satellite or connectivity disruption
Testing scenarios now prevents outages later.
5. Don’t Wait for Government Policy
They will reshape the digital landscape, but not fast enough to protect organisations from immediate geopolitical or supply chain risks. Resilience requires action today.
Conclusion
There is no “giant switch” in Washington that can plunge Europe into darkness but the leverage the U.S. holds through its dominance in cloud, AI, satellite and semiconductor technology is real, and impossible to ignore. Digital dependency has become geopolitical dependency.
For UK organisations especially manufacturers, education providers, public-sector bodies and multi-site enterprises, the priority now is to build private-cloud resilience, hybrid architectures, and sovereign data controls that guarantee continuity regardless of how global politics shifts.
Advantex is already helping organisations design, implement and support these environments from private cloud platforms and hybrid architectures to secure connectivity, resilient DR strategies and cost-effective communication services. We can help you build an infrastructure that gives you the performance of cloud, the predictability of on-prem and the sovereignty your organisation needs.
If you want to explore what a more resilient, sovereign-aligned infrastructure could look like for your business, get in touch.
