Since Donald Trump stepped back into power at the start of this year, the UK tech sector has been forced to confront a question many of us have long avoided: who actually holds the keys to the UK’s digital future?

As Trump delivered his ‘Liberation Day’ speech, global markets braced for impact and energy costs shot through the roof. But just as businesses begin to find their feet, we’re being forced to face a new era of digital insecurity. The rose-tinted view of Big Tech as untouchable and almighty is fading. And with it, the belief that the UK can comfortably outsource critical infrastructure decisions to a small group of US tech giants.

If we’ve learned anything from the first half of 2025, it’s this: overdependency is your biggest business risk. And yet, even now, the vast majority of the UK’s digital infrastructure sits under foreign jurisdiction.

At Civo, we set out to understand how UK IT leaders are responding to this shifting landscape. What’s driving their concerns around digital sovereignty? How are they rethinking cloud partnerships, data governance, and infrastructure strategy in light of growing geopolitical and regulatory pressure?

Our latest research captures a clear mood of discontent across the UK tech sector and reveals how businesses are starting to reimagine a more sovereign, resilient future for British tech.

Here’s what we found.

When convenience meets consequence

Let’s acknowledge the obvious: the dominance of US Big Tech has brought enormous innovation to the UK. But it has also led to a situation where around 80% of Europe’s cloud market is under US jurisdiction.

For years, UK businesses optimised around cost, convenience, and speed. Now, we’re being forced to weigh political risk alongside technical performance. Our latest research confirmed as much, finding that 84% of UK IT leaders are concerned that geopolitical developments could threaten their ability to access and control their data. As a result, 61% now see digital sovereignty as a strategic priority.

This is a huge shift. Cloud infrastructure decisions are no longer just about how fast you can scale or how many regions you can replicate across. They’re about where your data resides, who governs it, and whether your business model can withstand the next regulatory shock. Sovereignty has become a central factor in how businesses assess long-term resilience.

Trust, recalibrated

At the heart of the issue is the fact that US tech is beholden to its own legal systems, which are increasingly diverging from UK and EU regulation. The US CLOUD Act, which compels US companies to hand over data regardless of where it’s stored, is the biggest concern for UK businesses.

For many, this is no longer a risk worth taking. In fact, we found that 43% of UK IT leaders said they do not trust Big Tech with their data. A further 82% would consider switching to gain greater control over governance and data location. This tells us that British tech is no longer content to hand over the reins to companies whose interests and obligations don’t necessarily align with their own. They’re ready to take back control of their digital future.

AI ups the ante

The rise of AI has made the issue of data ownership impossible to ignore. As data becomes more valuable and more deeply embedded in AI models, the stakes around its ownership and governance have increased exponentially.

It’s no surprise, then, that 68% of UK IT leaders say they will only use AI services where they have complete certainty over data ownership. Without jurisdictional clarity and policy alignment, trust in AI outcomes breaks down along with your compliance posture.

This is exactly why we’ve built relaxAI, an open-source sovereign AI assistant designed for transparency, control, and in-region data residency.

Redesigning resilience

The logical next step for many businesses is multi-cloud and hybrid strategies.

We found that 60% of UK organisations are no longer reliant on a single provider, and a significant portion are already pursuing hybrid or sovereign-first models. But awareness doesn’t always translate into action: only 35% have full visibility into where their data is stored, and just 15% have made significant infrastructure changes in the past year.

This inertia is understandable. Migrations are complex. Sovereign infrastructure options haven’t always matched the flexibility and scalability of public cloud. But that’s changing fast.

At Civo, we’re seeing growing demand for FlexCore, our on-premises, cloud-native platform that delivers the speed and scalability we’ve come to expect from hyperscale cloud, but in a way that meets the needs of regulated and sovereignty-conscious environments. We’re proving that you no longer need to trade compliance for capability.

A new chapter for British tech

Sovereignty now sits at the intersection of cyber resilience, regulatory alignment, and strategic independence. It’s becoming the basis on which businesses evaluate partnerships, structure their digital estates, and futureproof their operations.

Tariffs, legal divergence, and political volatility have all exposed the risks of overreliance and made clear that digital infrastructure can no longer be someone else’s problem. More than a defensive response, this is a moment of real opportunity.

If we get this right, the UK has a chance to shape a more open and competitive cloud ecosystem. One that is better suited to the regulatory and commercial realities of today’s global economy. It’s our chance to build a uniquely British tech ecosystem that works for our businesses.