European firms are ditching US cybersecurity firms as report claims ‘digital sovereignty is becoming a buying decision’ Craig Hale | usagoldmines.com

• European cybersecurity vendors saw 3.5x as much growth as the overall average
• US vendors still account for a major part of the market, report finds
• Sovereignty claims aren’t regulated or backed up

European companies have already been part of a sovereign push to switch their cloud providers to more local, homegrown alternatives, but new research shows the same could be happening for cybersecurity.

New sales figures in a Context report (via The Register) claims sales from EU-based vendors rose by 35% in the two years ending Q3 2026.

While it may not sound like a massive growth, overall sales rose by just 10%, showing just how much effort is being put into switching to sovereign cybersecurity options. On the flip side, US vendors saw just an 8% growth during the same period.

European companies are ditching US vendors for sovereign alternatives

Although it’s clear European companies are trying to invest more in local alternatives, US vendors still dominate 62% of the EMEA cybersecurity market, which means there’s a long way to go before European companies top the charts.

Among the areas where EU-based vendors see the most interest are security awareness training, vulnerability management and SIEM. However, US companies are still doing a lot of the heavy lifting across identity and access management and cloud security – a possible tie to the fact that many companies are still using US clouds.

“Digital sovereignty is becoming a buying decision,” Research VP Joe Turner summarized. “As customers and resellers get clearer about what it means in practice, they’re asking who holds the encryption keys, who can access sensitive logs and where that data is stored.”

But more broadly, there are also concerns about sovereignty claims. An October 2026 Omdia report found as many as 28% of providers don’t actually disclose proof of sovereignty. “No one is regulating who can call themselves a sovereign AI provider,” Telco B2B Research Director Camille Mandler warned.

Still, nearly half (45%) of enterprises in Europe are looking to add or replace IT suppliers due to sovereignty requirements in the next 18 months – compared with just 30% in North America.