Europe vs. the Tech Plutocrats An Existential Battle for Democracy and Sovereignty

Director of Europe & Transatlantic partnerships Max von Thun published an essay in Musk, Power, and the EU: Can EU Law Tackle the Challenges of Unchecked Plutocracy?, warning that Europe’s reliance on U.S. tech giants like Elon Musk’s companies threatens its sovereignty and democracy, and calls for bold, unified EU action to reclaim control and enforce democratic digital governance.

The essay warns of mounting threats to European sovereignty and democracy stemming from the convergence of U.S. state power and the unchecked dominance of American tech giants. At the heart of this threat is Elon Musk, whose corporate interests—Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI—have blurred the line between private enterprise and political power. 

But von Thun argues that the focus should not rest solely on Musk. His actions are indicative of broader structural dependencies on a handful of U.S. corporations that control Europe’s digital infrastructure, including cloud computing, semiconductors, social media and search. These dependencies expose Europe to risks of political interference and economic coercion, particularly following President Trump’s return to the White House. 

The essay offers a critical examination of how Europe became so exposed. Decades of importing U.S.-style neoliberal economic thinking led to the downplaying of strategic resilience, neglect of industrial policy, and failure to curb monopoly power in the tech sector. Despite some important efforts to fix the problem—including numerous antitrust investigations and regulatory advances like the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA)—Europe has often fallen short in enforcement and strategic vision.

Von Thun calls for a stronger, more coherent European response to today’s massive threats. This includes robust and ambitious enforcement of existing laws, a unified vision across institutions and member states, and strategic use of the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) to push back against U.S. political coercion.

 Above all, the essay urges the EU to move beyond viewing competition enforcement and regulation through a purely economic lens, and to treat it as central to protecting democracy and sovereignty. It concludes with a call for Europe to develop and promote its own vision for a fair, decentralised digital economy—one rooted in democratic values and protected from manipulation by foreign private and state actors.