A LOOK AT Europeans’ software budgets shows why they are worried about dependence on America. Germany’s federal government pays almost half a billion euros a year in licence fees(许可费；授权费) to Microsoft, an American software firm. A rough calculation(粗略估算) by a French business association finds that large French companies buy more than $50bn in software and cloud services annually from Uncle Sam(① 详细背景资料：Uncle Sam（山...)’s tech giants. Euro-zone imports of intellectual property services from America have ballooned(激增；急剧膨胀) to $200bn a year and counting(而且还在增加) (see chart).
只要看看欧洲人的软件预算，就能明白他们为何担忧对美国的依赖。德国联邦政府每年向美国软件公司微软支付近5亿欧元的许可费。法国一家商业协会的粗略估算显示，法国大企业每年从美国科技巨头那里购买超过500亿美元的软件和云服务。欧元区从美国进口的知识产权服务已激增至每年2000亿美元，而且还在增长（见图表）。
That is not surprising. Cloud and artificial-intelligence services could prove more transformative(变革性的；有重大变化的) than online shopping, social media or internet search. And the four biggest American cloud and AI firms—Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft—are miles ahead of(遥遥领先于) Europe. German politicians crow about(吹嘘；夸耀) a new €1bn ($1.16bn) data centre near Munich; America’s big four invested over 350 times that in 2025 alone. Of almost 100 notable AI models released in the past year, according to Epoch AI(① 详细背景资料：Epoch AI是一家...), a research firm, only one was from the European Union. The grip of American tech is, if anything(如果说有什么不同的话（表示相反或加强）), growing tighter.
这并不令人意外。云服务和人工智能可能比在线购物、社交媒体或互联网搜索更具变革性。而美国最大的四家云和人工智能公司——亚马逊、谷歌、Meta和微软——遥遥领先于欧洲。德国政客们对慕尼黑附近一个10亿欧元（11.6亿美元）的新数据中心大肆吹嘘；而美国四巨头仅在2025年就投资了其350倍以上。根据研究公司Epoch AI的数据，过去一年发布的近100个值得关注的人工智能模型中，只有一个来自欧盟。美国技术的掌控力，如果有什么变化的话，那就是越来越紧了。
Policymakers are keen to change that. On June 3rd the EU will unveil(公布；揭幕) a tech-sovereignty package, including a cloud and AI development act. In April France announced it was switching(转换；切换) all government computers from Windows to Linux, an open-source operating system originally from Europe. Germany is likely to task domestic firms with setting up a cloud for administrative data, and its domestic intelligence service has opted for ArgonOS, a French data analytics firm, over America’s Palantir. Businesses are also diversifying. In 2022 most firms surveyed by Accenture, a consultancy, said they only considered American cloud providers. That share dropped to less than 20% in 2025.
政策制定者迫切希望改变这种状况。6月3日，欧盟将公布一项技术主权一揽子计划，包括一项云和人工智能发展法案。今年4月，法国宣布将所有政府电脑从Windows系统切换至Linux——一种源自欧洲的开源操作系统。德国可能委托国内企业为行政数据建立云平台，且其国内情报机构已选择法国数据分析公司ArgonOS，而非美国的Palantir。企业也在多元化。2022年，咨询公司埃森哲调查的大多数公司表示，它们只考虑美国云提供商。到2025年，这一比例已降至不足20%。
Chicken, meet egg
鸡与蛋的相遇