Digital Revolution, Economic Upheaval
The digital revolution is profoundly shaking up the economy, with the impact felt well beyond the digital sector itself. Indeed, it is transforming the very concept of value creation. Artificial intelligence represents a new phase that requires a colossal investment in physical infrastructure like data centers. Europe failed to grasp the scale of these changes in time, but it does have certain advantages.
In 2000, four European companies were among the world's top 20 market capitalizations. By 2025, there will be none. In the space of a generation, the European Union (EU) has gone from being a leading economic power to a spectator of a technological revolution that it failed to embrace.
Economic history is marked by major technological breakthroughs. From the steam engine to electrification, each wave of innovation has redefined the foundations of productivity and reshuffled the deck of economic power. Digital technology marks a breakthrough of a different kind: in just a few decades, it has gone from being a tool at the service of the economy to a structural foundation that is rewriting the rules. Value creation is based less and less on the transformation of material resources and more on the ability to capture, process, and leverage information flows. The dominant companies are no longer those with the largest industrial capacities, but those that control platforms, data, and algorithms. Nations that have been slow to grasp this reality have seen their relative economic position erode. [...]
Hugo Le Picard is an Associate Research Fellow at Ifri's Center for Geopolitics of Technology, holds a PhD in economics from PSL University and is a tech entrepreneur.
This article is available in French and has been published in Politique étrangère, vol. 91, n° 1, 2026.
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Digital Revolution, Economic Upheaval
Author(s)
Hugo LE PICARD
Associate Research Fellow, Center for Geopolitics of Technology, Ifri
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