Local-first software and geopolitical risk

Slides from a talk given on 24 Feb 2026 at the Local-first Software online meetup
Website: https://lofi.so/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3bsA2AK0Vw

- The risk of a conflict between Europe and the US over Greenland has grown
- What if Europe suddenly gets locked out of US cloud services?
- How local-first can support technological sovereignty

Transcript

2. The Danish navy's inspection ship HDMS Vaedderen sails off Nuuk, Greenland, on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix Foto/AP https://www.npr.org/2026/01/19/nx-s1-5682038/trump-greenland- nobel-peace-prize
3. https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/european-cloud-providers-local-market-share-now-holds-steady-at-15 AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud together have 70% cloud market share in Europe. The largest European cloud providers (SAP, Deutsche Telekom) have 2% market share each
6. “A year ago, it would have been absurd to worry about European access to American technology. As [Donald Trump] recklessly exploits the transatlantic alliance over Greenland, an executive order limiting American AI firms’ business in Europe no longer seems unthinkable. Some European restrictions on American technology, including the computing clouds where AIs reside, are also plausible.” – The Economist, 22 January 2026
7. https://apnews.com/article/trump-icc-sanctions-israel- order-01beee050ae84d0d9eae66d00bc8ead9 February 2025
8. May 2025 https://apnews.com/article/icc-trump-sanctions-karim- khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3
9. June 2025 https://www.politico.eu/article/microsoft-did-not-cut-services-international-criminal-court-president-american-sanctions-trump-tech-icc-amazon-google/
11. July 2025 https://www.cyberincontext.ca/p/microsoft-admits-us-law-supersedes
12. https://www.theregister.com/2022 /05/02/ukrainian_tractors_deere/
32. Thanks! Local-first https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/ Automerge https://automerge.org/ My work https://martin.kleppmann.com/ Crowdfunding https://www.patreon.com/martinkl Email martin@kleppmann.com Bluesky @martin.kleppmann.com Mastodon @martin@nondeterministic.computer