American Tech Giants Capture 80% of Europe's Cloud Spending

This dependence, estimated at €265 billion annually, is said to be comparable to the European Union’s energy dependence.

On April 25, 2025, the consulting firm Asterès published a report titled Technological Dependence on American Software & Cloud Services: An Estimate of the Economic Consequences in Europe. This study, commissioned by Cigref, which brings together major French digital companies and public administrations, and Numeum, a French digital industry association, reveals that American companies capture 80% of the European Union’s spending in the field of professional cloud computing, amounting to €265 billion annually.

This sum, collected mainly by the three giants Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft Azure, represents, according to the study, two million direct, indirect, and induced jobs in the United States. The authors of the report conclude that “Europe’s digital bill is comparable in size to its energy bill.”

While deploring a “lack of transparency in data concerning international trade flows,” the authors call for “greater mobilization” to reduce this dependence. The report also includes an estimate of the potential gains from redirecting part of this spending toward European players. If the latter were to control an additional 15% of the professional cloud market by 2035, they would generate 463,000 jobs and €75 billion in annual revenue for the EU.