Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 13, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 13, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleCapgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat argues against full European tech autonomy, advocating for balanced sovereignty and partnerships with AI firms amid US tech dominance.
By Leo Marchandon
Feb 13 (Reuters) - Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat on Friday dismissed calls for a total technological sovereignty in Europe, at a time when fraying transatlantic relations have stoked concerns about the region's dependence on U.S. tech majors.
The French IT services group, which serves government agencies, critical‑infrastructure operators and large regulated enterprises, is positioning itself as a bridge between Brussels' sovereignty ambitions and the reality of U.S.-dominated cloud infrastructure.
The balancing act reflects a central tension in European tech policy: how to build a fully autonomous technology stack to reduce dependence on American giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft?
"There is no such thing as absolute sovereignty," Ezzat told journalists in a post-earnings call. "Nobody has it, because no one has sovereignty over the entire value chain required to deliver services."
Ezzat, who chairs the digital working group at the European Round Table for Industry, said he had been discussing the issue with the European Commission in Brussels and at Davos, and that the Commission largely shared his views.
He said digital autonomy follows a four-layer framework of data, operations, regulation and technology, and the current talks focus on finding the right balance between sovereignty requirements and enabling businesses to adopt artificial intelligence technology to remain globally competitive.
On the first three levels, Europe already has independence, but the dominance of U.S. Big Tech means there is no complete independence on a technological level, Ezzat added.
Rather than pursue full autonomy, he said European nations should be seeking "the right sovereignty solution based on the use case, the client environment, the government".
Partnerships with European AI firms like France-based Mistral are examples of this gradual progress, Ezzat said.
Capgemini has signed partnerships with U.S. hyperscalers AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft to deliver what it calls "sovereign" AI solutions, cloud services provided by a European-based company while running on American infrastructure.
The French group is also navigating its own reputational challenges around government contracting. Earlier this month, it said it would sell U.S. subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions after a public backlash over its $4.8 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for data analysis work.
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak.)
Technological sovereignty refers to the ability of a nation or region to independently control its technological infrastructure and services without reliance on foreign entities.
Digital autonomy is the capacity of a region or organization to operate independently in the digital space, managing its data, technology, and digital services.
Cloud infrastructure is a collection of hardware and software components that enable the delivery of computing services over the internet, allowing for flexible resource management.
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