Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by f33d5173 31 days ago
The clouds are not really american, but they are subject to american laws. The money and ownership needn't be american, anybody all around the world can buy stock in america companies. And the work to build these clouds was not done exclusively by americans, as all these companies have offices in europe to hire european engineers (to say nothing of the foreigners they pay to come live in america). From the perspective of the market, the clouds being american is an irrelevant detail, since they can reap whatever benefits they like of the world outside the US, as well as whatever benefits they want within the US.

I think this is an important thing to note in all these discussions of "why can't europe innovate": europeans in europe can and do innovate, but the processes to commercialize that innovation have been set up in the US, and have no market incentive to relocate or diversify. They can always take advantage of innovation wherever it lies.

To make the market care about something it is otherwise indifferent to, you have to pay it. Whereas capital markets ordinarily don't care if a company serving europeans is domiciled in the US, if you pay them a couple billion suddenly they will. It may be expensive, but it's the only solution to the problem at hand.