zlacker

> and no significant large technology companies

I can only assume this is a comparison to the US

The world doesn't care about the US yard stick so much. Even less now than before. We in Europe don't care our economy is smaller than the US, that our cars are smaller etc.

Bigger is not always better

>>gib444+(OP)
You say stuff like this, and then simultaneously complain when the US winds up owning the entire technology stack and being the predominate western superpower.

So which is it? Does scale not matter, or are you unhappy with the outcome of ignoring it?

>>gib444+(OP)
Sure, but at least you have homegrown car companies. They make cutting edge cars that are mainstream, and even popular abroad.

You have no equivalents for software. That's why all of your consumer and most of your official stuff runs on US software and cloud platforms, and why headlines like these are...headlines rather than just being normal.

Don't get me wrong -- as a US consumer, I would love for this to change and have EuroCloud or whatever. Hetzner isn't too bad. But it doesn't have the scale and service breadth that Microsoft, Amazon or Google bring.

>>frumpl+p4
Allowing the US to gain such soft power is the issue, not the size of a company. In fact, it would be even better for consumers if there were more standards and companies that compete by building against those standards. The fact that there is only one Microsoft is as much problem for the US itself as it is for others.

In any case, it's absolutely essential that the western world remove dependency on US technology.