Europe moves to secure sovereign cybersecurity and chips

Europe’s push for sovereignty over its digital systems has new developments in cybersecurity and semiconductor manufacturing. New initiatives from Palo Alto Networks, Deutsche Telekom, GlobalFoundries and Qualinx show how the continent is moving to operational sovereignty.

Palo Alto Networks and Deutsche Telekom have introduced Sovereign Cortex with T Security, a cybersecurity solution tailored to Europe’s most regulated sectors. It combines Palo Alto’s AI-driven Cortex SecOps platform with enhanced data sovereignty controls that are independently overseen by Deutsche Telekom.

The offering is designed to help organizations use cloud-based, AI-powered security while meeting strict European regulations such as GDPR, NIS2 and DORA. These rules require not only that data is stored in specific locations but also tight control over who can access it, how it is encrypted, how access is monitored and how support operations handle it.

Sovereign Cortex with T Security addresses these needs with additional sovereignty measures across the entire system. These include customer data, telemetry, encryption keys and audited access logs. It also ensures that all support staff are based in Europe and that contracts are governed by European law.

This allows organizations to benefit from advanced cybersecurity capabilities without compromising regulatory compliance or data sovereignty. “European organizations – from public authorities to critical infrastructure operators – have been clear with us: they need real time AI-driven security and they need verifiable data sovereignty controls, and they should not have to choose between them,” says Helmut Reisinger, CEO of EMEA at Palo Alto Networks.

“This is our direct response to what customers and regulators across Europe have been asking for – a service that honors Europe’s sovereignty, maintains the security effectiveness and modular platformization our customers depend on, and reflects the trust they place in us.”

Sovereignty appears to be the direction of travel among major powers, as Europe and the U.S. were namechecked in a recent address by a senior official for India. The technology secretary for India suggested its large market needs to have “some degree of strategic autonomy” with potential implications for biometrics and DPI vendors. Meanwhile, the EU has been advised to establish its own platform for testing and evaluating biometric technologies. The policy brief calls for an independent capability comparable to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

It should be noted the difference between the cloud and physical data centers, with the latter currently seeing heavy capital expenditure by U.S. corporations such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. Amazon has talked up the costs of building and operating data centers, but has also outlined practical digital sovereignty with a series of blog posts. At MOSIP Connect 2026, a panellist in Rabat said that keeping your own cryptographic keys can be of greater importance to sovereignty compared to other measures like data residency and cloud sovereignty.

Europe looks to establish its own supply of secure chips

GlobalFoundries (GF) and Qualinx have completed the first fully European, end-to-end semiconductor manufacturing process at GF’s Dresden facility, proving that secure chips for aerospace, defense and critical infrastructure can be designed and produced entirely within Europe.

Supported by the European Chips Act the project keeps all design data and production steps, such as mask services and wafer fabrication, within the EU. “Our partnership with Qualinx marks the first operational milestone: it shows that complex, security-relevant ASIC designs for aerospace, defense, and critical infrastructure can already be industrialized today using a fully European, trusted manufacturing path,” says Dr. Manfred Horstmann, SVP and general manager at GlobalFoundries.

GlobalFoundries plans to further automate and scale this sovereign manufacturing flow by 2026, with broader industry use expected from 2027. The company is also working with partners like Deutsche Telekom to ensure that all associated data processing and transfer remain within European infrastructure, strengthening overall security and data sovereignty.

“Together with GlobalFoundries, we’ve optimized our Digital RF technology on GF’s FDX with a secure end-to-end flow, culminating in the launch of our ultra-low-power reconfigurable Global Navigation Satellite System SoC and Analog Front End,” says Tom Trill, CEO of Qualinx.

The development could benefit biometrics and digital identity vendors by enabling access to EU-made chips, helping to meet strict data sovereignty and supply chain requirements. It has to be considered in light of the EUDI Wallet and the ecosystem expected to support it. It may also mean the creation of fully sovereign identity solutions and less reliance on non-European hardware, though the impact would be gradual as the model scales.

Article Topics

cybersecurity  |  digital identity  |  digital sovereignty  |  Europe  |  GlobalFoundries  |  microchips  |  Palo Alto Networks