I really have to wonder where all this doomsaying is coming from. Best case, as you already mentioned, serving some self-interest, worst case someone else's. There is so much conflation here - AI and internet, infrastructure and services, research and commercial development. And everything is downplayed to make the EU look bad.

The EU is right there at the forefront of AI research for example. Just because some megacorp can sell slop at a loss, this doesn't mean we have 'lost the race' or anything, wth are they even talking about.

You see stuff like this constantly and it's almost always corpo leeches trying to get state money, people sucking up to or being controlled by a superpower of choice, or someone who has no idea what they are even talking about.

One final example: The German Telekom is the largest telco/internet provider by revenue in the fucking world, and competitive in the US. (Only by revenue tho.)

I mean, this unit is Belgian. Here in the Netherlands our southern neighbors are (lovingly) said to be.. uh, well.. how do I say it? Slightly less wrinklybrained. :p

Jokes aside: This assessment is probably realistic at this very moment; we still very much rely on the USAians for many cloud and AI services. EU is making quite an effort to localize though. Fairly certain the reliance will much decrease. At the same time, it is not realistic to assume we will be able to match the level of technological advancement overseas. Honestly, one might wonder if this is required.

Fairly certain we will be just fine in the long run.