Europe Now Sees American Tech as a Kill Switch
Elon Musk Just Gave Europe a Reason to Replace American Technology
After Elon Musk personally ordered restrictions on Starlink's military Starshield service to Ukraine, European policymakers have stopped treating the idea of a U.S. kill switch as paranoia. Steve Blank, writing from London, reports that officials now openly ask what happens if Microsoft, OpenAI, or Palantir cut them off. With AI lowering the cost of building sovereign software, he argues the blowback could cost American vendors tens or hundreds of billions in lost revenue.
The message heard loud and clear here in Europe was that the U.S. is an unreliable security and technology partner willing to throw any partner under the bus, at any time, for any reason.
- owenthejumper
In a normal world, this would be treason by an illegal immigrant to the US. In today's world it's a blip in news. Sad state of affairs :(
Europe will absolutely build alternatives. They'll bicker for some time, but in the end, they build. To Americans it looks like they don't but they do. Quality of life, life expectancy, and many factors have outpaced US in the last few years. The tech industry in the US is still important, but the importance will start waning soon.
- tumdum_
ICEYE and Nokia are already working on a replacement for starlink: https://www.iceye.com/newsroom/press-releases/iceye-and-noki...
Isar is working hard on commercial launch capabilities: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/06/german-star...
- delichon
Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS. Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.
- jschveibinz
Follow the money: European wealth is concentrated in a smaller number of centralized institutions that are more conservative investors compared to U.S.
Pension funds:
- U.S. has over 5,000 independent municipal, state, and corporate pension systems that invest aggressively.
- EU pension capital is in national funds.
University Endowments:
- U.S. has over 800 active endowments (with 130+ exceeding $1 billion)
- EU universities are state funded, with little or no endowment funds
Corporate Financing:
- U.S. businesses get > 70% of funding from VC, PE, mutual funds
- EU companies favor banks
Family Offices:
- U.S. system has created over 10,000 single-family offices that invest aggressively
- EU has ~2,000
State investment:
- U.S. moves .16% of GDP into small business with no equity ownership -- free market VC takes equity
- EU moves < .08% of GDP into small business with full equity ownership.
- d5lt5
> The decision of the U.S. to shut off intelligence and throttle the military version of Starlink called Starshield to Ukraine.
Ukraine does not use Starshield, only Starlink. Take this article with a grain of salt.
The rumor [0][1] is that both Ukraine and Russia install GPS spoofers as a workaround for geofencing. Another rumor is that Starlink recently updated their software to detect and block such attempts that is based on rapid satellite switch detection by the Starlink terminal that happened if the terminal was moving faster than 160km/h.
[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/12/starlink-rus...
- ivan_gammel
Comments here somehow missing the fact that EU alternative to Starlink has already been work in progress for a while with several competitors in the game and billions € of investment.
The replacement goes on, the smell of money in the air is felt quite well, digital and technology sovereignty is a popular topic on startup events.
- ripley12
Lotta "Europe could never build this!" points in here, missing that Telesat (Canadian) is already building this, planning to launch in Q1 2028, and will happily sell to Europe.
- PeterStuer
We've had plenty of reasons to "replace American technology" for at least 50 years. Did we? Not one bit.
- LurkandComment
1. EU was slowly doing this in some tech industries and its really going to pick up speed
2. They don't have to replace a lot of US tech before the economic impact compounds to effect the US.
- jon128
There is a nuanced technology explanation here https://x.com/RSA_Observer/status/2113578319023083695
Not sure what to think of it.