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April 20, 2026

‘Europe is a digital colony’: Startups wrestle with tech sovereignty demands

German AI translation startup DeepL recently partnered with Amazon for its cloud infrastructure, sparking concerns


Jarosław Kutyłowski, CEO and founder of DeepL

In recent weeks, posts on forums like Reddit and LinkedIn have raised questions over one European startup’s decision to use a US cloud provider to underpin some of its services. 

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Daphné Leprince-Ringuet

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet is a senior reporter for Sifted, based in Paris. She covers French tech and writes Sifted's AI and Deeptech newsletter . You can find her on X and LinkedIn

Anne Sraders

Anne Sraders is a senior reporter at Sifted, based in Berlin. She covers the VC industry and deeptech startups. She also writes Sifted's weekly VC newsletter Up Round. Follow her on X and LinkedIn

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