Davos 2026 - the end of a week when tech sovereignty in Europe was all too on point an issue

Whatever else Davos 2026 will be remembered for, it’s pretty safe to say it won’t be for the positive impact it’s had on US/European relations. With that in mind, a panel debate on European tech sovereignty seemed uncannily well-timed.

The session started from the downbeat, but sadly realistic, premise that Europe presently punches below its weight in the global tech race. That being the case, who’s to blame for this - and what can be done to address it?

Aiman Ezzat, CEO of European services giant Capgemini, struck a sombre note when he observed:

The reality is that we have a huge amount of dependency on US technology today. [Europe] let go of all our hardware players. I mean, I'm old enough to remember Olivetti and ICL and Bull. They are gone. We did not invest early enough in the cloud to be able to ...