Europe seeks cloud and AI alternatives to Amazon, Microsoft, and Google

European lawmakers are pushing for public entities to buy more cloud services from European providers, following a global Microsoft outage that disrupted email and meetings for users in 74 countries. The incident has reignited concerns about Europe's heavy reliance on a small group of US tech giants. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control about 70% of the European cloud market, while European providers hold roughly 15%, down from 29% in 2017. The outage, which began Thursday, was not attributed to a cyberattack, and services were gradually restored by Friday. The European Commission aims to triple the EU's data center capacity within five to seven years. European alternatives like France's Mistral AI and Germany's STACKIT are growing, but analysts say they will struggle to reverse the market share loss.