“No country can be fully sovereign”: new alliance pushes cross-border rules for trusted tech

LONDON — A new coalition of global technology companies says it wants to fight digital fragmentation and rebuild confidence in how critical systems are built and governed — a push that comes as governments tighten rules on data, platforms and national “tech sovereignty,” and as the industry warns that trust has become an economic input rather than a public-relations slogan.

Reuters reported that Microsoft and Ericsson are leading a 15-company coalition called the “Trusted Tech Alliance,” which is pitching a shared set of principles meant to promote secure and ethical technology “regardless of origin,” spanning everything from AI to cloud infrastructure. The group’s members include companies across the U.S., Europe and Asia, and it is positioning itself as a counterweight to the drift toward nationally siloed tech rules.

The alliance is launching into a climate of regulatory assertiveness. In Europe, the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act have already pushed major platforms to change practices, while officials continue to debate how aggressive enforcement should be and how those rules interact with broader industrial policy. In other regions, governments have moved to shorten takedown timelines and tighten intermediary obligations, arguing the changes are needed to address harmful content and emerging risks tied to AI and coordinated misinformation.

Tech companies, for their part, have increasingly framed “trust” as the basis for cross-border commerce: if systems aren’t interoperable, or if compliance becomes a patchwork of conflicting requirements, the cost of building and running global services rises quickly. The alliance’s backers argue their five principles — governance, ethical conduct, secure development, adherence to global security standards, and an open digital environment — are meant to provide a shared baseline that governments and businesses can lean on.

Critics, however, often see industry-led “principles” as softer than enforceable rules. The Reuters report noted that member companies will self-verify compliance while allowing independent assessments, a structure that will likely invite skepticism from regulators and privacy advocates who prefer formal oversight and penalties.

The timing is also political. Reuters tied the alliance’s rise to growing concern over digital sovereignty as countries react to U.S. isolationism and debates over how much dependence on foreign vendors is acceptable in critical infrastructure. That context helps explain why “trust” is turning into a measurable business theme: it affects procurement, government contracting, cross-border data flows, and the willingness of customers to adopt new tools.

In practice, the trust economy has a simple test: do people believe the systems running their lives — identity, payments, communications, AI tools — are governed in a way that’s secure, fair and predictable? Governments are answering with tighter rules. The industry is answering with coalitions, standards and promises. The next fight will be over who gets to define “trust” — and who gets to enforce it.