Helsing shows that Europe can build defence technology to global scale. The harder question is what happens next: whether Europe can develop the capital, industrial partnerships and market architecture needed to make companies like Helsing less exceptional.
Digital Governance
Digital governance defines the rules, power structures and accountability shaping the digital economy and its underlying technologies.
Technological innovation alone does not create resilient societies. Erasmus University Rotterdam explores how governance, economics, healthcare and public institutions together provide the institutional capacity that enables modern societies to function.
Europe’s AI Gigafactories are about far more than computing power. They represent a new generation of strategic infrastructure where energy, semiconductors, photonics, connectivity and industrial ecosystems determine whether Europe’s AI ambitions can become reality.
Meta is investing hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure. China is making artificial intelligence increasingly affordable. As these two strategies collide, Europe may face its greatest technological challenge yet: can digital sovereignty survive the economics of everyday choice?
When seven European technology leaders issued a joint call for action, much of the discussion focused on regulation. Yet the significance of the coalition may lie elsewhere. By bringing together companies from semiconductors, telecommunications, industrial systems, software, artificial intelligence and aerospace, the statement reveals a broader shift in European thinking: from individual sectors toward interconnected technology ecosystems.
Europe’s sovereign cloud ambitions are entering a more pragmatic phase. The partnership between KPN and Schwarz Digits reflects a broader European shift away from the illusion of full technological independence toward strategic control over infrastructure, governance and critical digital systems.
