Sovereignty Stops at the Processor: Europe's Overlooked Vulnerability

Europe is investing over €2 billion in sovereign cloud infrastructure to reduce exposure to US surveillance and legal jurisdiction, but this strategy is fundamentally undermined because these systems run on Intel and AMD processors containing hidden management engines (CSME/PSP) that operate below the operating system, outside all security oversight. Under US law RISAA 2024, hardware manufacturers can be compelled to provide government access, meaning Europe's entire digital sovereignty effort is exposed through hardware it cannot control.