Its time to build! (European style): Cristina Caffarra

Mar 1, 2026

Cristina Caffarra, eminent economist and antitrust veteran who founded the Eurostack movement to rebuild Europe’s digital infrastructure. She explains why European dependency on US hyperscalers matters. She discusses productivity gaps, why regulation alone cannot create industry, and how demand-side moves like procurement and enterprise buying could kickstart a homegrown tech stack.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Europe Has Become A Digital Colony

Europe is a digital colony because it outsourced its entire stack from chips to apps and now depends on foreign infrastructure.
Cristina Caffarra warns this dependency sacrifices control over innovation paths and long-term capabilities across sectors like manufacturing and defence.

INSIGHT

Productivity Gap Comes From Low Investment Per Worker

Productivity gaps between Europe and the US stem from lower investment per worker, especially into high-growth tech that diffuses across the economy.
Caffarra links Draghi's analysis to the need for a full vertical tech stack so innovation diffuses into defence, manufacturing and services.

INSIGHT

Regulation Alone Won't Build A Tech Industry

Regulation and antitrust have largely 'nibbled at the corners' and failed to build a domestic industry or dent hyperscalers' power.
Caffarra argues enforcement is slow, under-resourced and often strengthens incumbents while consuming political energy.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Cristina Caffarra is an eminent economist and veteran antitrust practitioner who has become a leading voice behind Eurostack — a grassroots, industry-led push to rebuild Europe’s digital infrastructure as a sovereignty and competitiveness play. She has a strong argument to make:

Europe is a “digital colony” — and it’s self-inflicted. US hyperscalers are excellent; Europe vacated the field through fragmentation, weak risk capital, and complacency.
The "kill switch" is a distraction; dependency is the disease. The real risk is gradual denial: deprecated features, constrained access, and strategic leverage — not a Hollywood blockbuster blackout.
Productivity is the core argument. Europe’s gap is investment per worker, especially into high-growth tech that diffuses across the whole economy.
Regulation can’t create an industry. Antitrust and platform rules “nibble at the corners”, take years, and leave the giants stronger — while absorbing all the political oxygen.
Europe chose theatre over building. “Taming Big Tech” became a substitute for the only question that mattered: where are Europe’s builders, customers, and scale-ups?
Demand is the lever, not more grants. Without customers, no stack survives — procurement and enterprise buying decisions are the flywheel.
Procurement should be the no-brainer. Every other major power has local preference norms; Europe’s non-discrimination logic is now being weaponised against European options. She notes that even the European Commission's own CIOs focuses on performance and efficiency alone.
Private enterprise is the real swing voter. Public sector is ~20% of demand; the other 80% sits with CEOs and CIOs who complain about European weakness — and then buy American.
European tech can compete cost — but not ease of use. European components exist; what’s missing is end-to-end “peace of mind” and the glue between parts.
Mercedes is the case study. They want sensitive AI loads (e.g. autonomous driving) not wholly dependent on US infrastructure — but need suppliers and buyers to co-design workable, integrated alternatives.
She argues that no one wants to “decouple” form the US — that’s a straw man. The practical goal is share: move European supply from <20% to something like 30–40% in a growing market.
This is wartime logic, not business-as-usual. Europe has surged before under pressure; Caffarra argues that its time to stop waiting for Brussels and to start acting like a superpower.

She leaves us with a blunt challenge: will Europe keep buying convenience — or invest, through demand, in a tech stack that keeps its innovation future in its own hands?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.