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The EU countries had decades to build and foster alternative companies yet they did not manage to do so. China did though.

Was it a lack of political will or short-termed-ness? Maybe both but the end result is the same.

You can't undo 20 years of inaction in a few years. It will take decades before viable EU competitors emerge and begin to rival US giants and that's if they even are allowed to do so in the first place.

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The EU countries had decades to build and foster alternative companies yet they did not manage to do so

They did so quite a few times, and then they let the home-grown alternatives be bought out by US capital.

China blocked (many) US companies though, that enabled/forced the local companies to fill the void.

That's my point. This was a decision by China. European countries were happy to just let the US in and not have to worry about building their own alternative versions of the US services.

Now the same EU countries are waking up and realizing that having pieces of your digital infrastructure in someone else's hands was bad bet but unfortunately, it will take decades to build the same thing in the EU.

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