(Bloomberg) — The EU published a list of the 39 companies signed up to become part of the its Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud, after the region moves to lessen its reliance on U.S. technology firms.
Nokia Oyj, Ericsson AB, OVH Groupe, SAP SE and X-Fab Silicon Foundries SE are among the list of companies, which includes no American or Chinese companies at this stage, with the rest coming from industries such as telecom, aerospace and defense.
The EU is attempting to become a more significant player in the cloud space, largely dominated by companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, with so-called “mini clouds” that wouldn’t be housed in a centralized server farm.
The alliance is meant to bring various companies together to build new, secure European cloud and edge technologies for citizens and businesses.
Some U.S. companies have applied to be part of the alliance, but are undergoing eligibility checks, according to a person familiar with the plans. More companies could be added later, they added.
“Data will transform the way we produce, consume and live,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement announcing the launch of the alliance Tuesday, ahead of the list being published. “Europe has all it takes to lead the ‘big data’ economy.”
It’s also working on a bloc-wide semiconductor strategy that aims to ensure access to what have become crucial components of digital life amid chip supply-chain shortages and the geopolitical challenges of a hardening U.S.-China tech rivalry.
(Updates with U.S detail in 5th paragraph.)
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