Bitkom survey: concern over dependence on US technology has almost doubled
73 percent of companies in Germany are worried about their dependence on US technology, up from 38 percent in 2024. Without digital imports they could last 16 months on average.
Symbolic image · Photo: Raimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
German businesses increasingly see themselves as dependent on digital technology from abroad. 73 percent of companies say they are concerned about dependence on the United States, up from 38 percent in 2024. For China the figure is 79 percent, up from 69 percent. That is the result of a Bitkom Research survey of 602 companies with at least 20 employees, presented by the digital industry association for the federal government's Digital Summit.
96 percent of firms buy digital products or services from abroad, and two thirds expect dependence to grow. If imports stopped completely, they estimate they could cope for 16 months on average, compared with 14 months in 2025. The most common imports are end devices such as smartphones and notebooks (94 percent), hardware such as chips and sensors (79 percent) and cloud services (73 percent). 68 percent see no alternative to their dependencies.
44 percent are already turning more to German or European providers, and 41 percent are stockpiling key components. 97 percent call for more investment in key digital technologies. 'This is not about isolation or even self-sufficiency,' said Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst. 'Resilience does not emerge overnight.'