Brussels Pays for Independence: European Union Adopts Chips Act 2.0

Europe is trying to buy its way out of technological vassalage. On June 4, 2026, the European Commission rolled out a massive `tech sovereignty package`, including Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act.

This package is a bureaucratic response to a harsh geopolitical reality. Having fallen behind the US in the foundation model race and being completely dependent on Asian hardware, Brussels is trying to stimulate local production. The EU plans to flood the creation of sovereign cloud AI infrastructure and chip manufacturing plants with subsidies to strengthen "digital autonomy." However, against the backdrop of giant private investments (like Alphabet's $80 billion or SoftBank's 5 GW data center in France), European state injections risk being a drop in the ocean. Bureaucracy does not create innovations; it only tries to buy time.

Source: European Commission / Reuters