€115B into the European economy? Sounds great.

Plus the non-monitary benefits longer-term...seems like a huge win.

Money not spend and value created? Win win scenario, just for a little hiccup during the transition…

Yes, but the hiccup may not even be so great, at least not monetarily, because the money is spent in Europe ...

115B one-time payment is not even that much for the entire EU lol

So thoughtful of them

Uhh that’s like €3 €300 pp right? Still sounds like an excellent deal to me!

Sounds like a very reasonable price for the benefits it would bring.

I hear BigTech screeching so it MUST be the best way forward... reinvent those 115B € in the EU!

A clearly impartial and unbiased opinion. I believe the EU should give me a ton of dollars or its economy will collapse. I hope this well-argued opinion gets all the media coverage.

Fuck em

I already want technological sovereignty, you don't have to sell it to me. €115 billion is nothing for the entire EU. Plus it would be money spent on European products instead.

How thoughtful of the companies profiting from Europe’s dependence to commission a study explaining why independence is too expensive. That’s not an economic forecast: it’s a ransom note with footnotes. Funny how €115 billion in supposed costs is terrifying, but decades of vendor lock in, surveillance, and lost sovereignty are apparently free. 🙈

And this €115bn isn't over a one year period, but over an extended length of time (6-10 years). Honestly, the EU would be nuts not to introduce sovereignty requirements.

When the dogs start howling, you know you are doing something right.

How long would it take Europe to save €115B in microslop ransom.. sorry i mean microsoft subscription charges?

Don't we have AI that can reverse engineer just about anything... Be a real shame if governments just started replacing all these proprietary dependencies with their own solutions...

Sounds good

Hey Claude can you make some Azure/AWS-like cloud services to run on thin air please. Make it look cool and don't use any proprietary dependencies.

The US has sided with Russia. Dependence now carries existential risks for the EU, so the costs hardly matter.

Instead, lets try and imagine how much this emerging conflict between Europe and the US has already cost Silicon Valley in terms of lost revenue.

Europe isn’t screwing the tech bro’s, they screwed themselves.

Unreliability is worthless.

Big headline, but check the fine print: most of that €115B assumes the EU will do something it hasn't actually proposed — extending the rules to private companies. And the study was paid for by the very US tech giants who'd lose business if Europe buys less American cloud. They only counted the costs of switching, never the benefits. Take it with a grain of salt.

You forgot the important "Don't make any mistakes"...

Seems more like an investment than a loss.

Even if that figure were accurate (which, as others have already pointed out, is unlikely) there is a finite payback period. And that's not even taking into consideration the advantages of digital independence.

Seems like a small number in this context tbh - if it were trillions that would be one thing, but 115 billion seems doable. Hard, but doable.

Yeah, so how much would it cost to keep you? A lot more? Thought so.

And not ditching them costs us our freedom and future. Also, authorities in the EU and member states are spending billions on licenses and support, going to those US tech giants, every single year. And just for context, The EU27 spent 418B EUR on defense in 2025 alone. On top of that, that money would stay in Europe instead of being lost to the US.

Given that not even the US tech lobby couldn't inflate that number to more than 115B EUR, makes it even financially a very realistic endeavor. Thanks tech oligarchs for confirming it.

"Don't halucinate"

It could cost 115B for them !
😎

About tree fiddy

Minutes

So for Germany (only the federal government, states would be in addition to that) license fees are currently about 500 million € a year, only for microsoft licenses.

For the federal states i only know of schleswig-holstein who saved on 16 million license fees by switching to OSS.

So just by these numbers (no guarantees, i am definitely missing something) it might take a while for europe. Still would be nice if some orange couldn't turn off our government by pressing a button.

Nice... so we do something right when they "warn us".
Let's keep on going.

Here I go again watching the Gamegrumps episode with that reference for the 100000th time 😂 https://youtu.be/VZKUzr78gs8?is=yql2uv_BIeb7T3_1

Just as they warned Australia about removing algorithms from social media?

Their interests are quite clear to all but the most deluded.

Costs are probably negotiated but per 1,000 employees, most businesses will be paying somewhere between £500,000 and £1,500,000 each year just for Microsoft 365.
So I'd estimate the UK civil service at a similar sum £450-500m per year for desktop services.
Thats before any Azure or AWS costs

For 27 EU member states, an assumption of €10B / year leaving the EU and going into the us tech giant economy doesnt seem crazy.

So the scare tactic €115b is over 5-6 years. While it would take 10-12 years to save that from fees paid by the central government services alone. Thats a 50% offset immediately on top of the advantages of keeping those vast sums within the EU economic zone. I reckon local authorities and other public services across the wider public sector could offset the other 50%

That is a much more detailed view. Thank you.

You can't put a price on freedom

Let’s find out.

Wauw, that’s cheap! Great argument to start pumping that money into the European economy with the benefits it bring.