In March 2026, Iranian drones struck several Amazon Web Services data centres - the world’s largest cloud infrastructure provider - in the United Arab Emirates. For the first time in a modern conflict, large-scale data centres became explicit kinetic targets. Iranian state media described the strikes as blows against “the enemy’s technological infrastructure.” Cloud services went dark across a region that had staked its economic future on AI.

These were not isolated incidents. They were dispatches from a wider contest, fought not only with missiles but with fibre-optic cables, semiconductors, data centres, and regulatory standards. Artificial intelligence is no longer merely a technological story. It is rapidly becoming an organising principle of global power.

Yet public debate remains fixated on applications: which chatbot is cleverest, which company will cross the next trillion-dollar threshold. Geopolitical power, however, does not reside at the application layer. More than 95 percent of intercontinental data traffic travels through submarine cables - carrying conversations, cloud services, public systems, and more than 10 trillion dollars in daily financial transactions. These cables are the nervous system of the AI economy.

The infrastructure that carries all this rarely makes headlines. But it is the foundation on which every AI application, every cloud service, every digital economy ultimately rests. The question is not whether to use global platforms. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have built capabilities Europe cannot replicate overnight. The real question is who provides the trusted, regulated layer through which that power can be harnessed by economies, societies, and states: securely, accountably, and in the national interest.

Whoever carries the data matters as much as whoever writes the algorithm.

Three Blocs, Three Bets

Washington treats AI leadership as a national security imperative, committing 500 billion dollars through the Stargate initiative. Beijing sees it as an extension of state capacity. Brussels, true to form, aspires to be the world’s trusted regulator remaining a key actor by setting the relevant standards.

Europe’s difficulty is that the structural gap is stark. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft together control roughly 70 percent of the European cloud market; while the two largest European providers account for just 4 percent. On its current trajectory, Europe faces an uphill battle to compete in building the world’s most powerful AI models.

Europe’s real asset is trust: robust legal frameworks, accountable operators, predictable regulation, and telecommunications networks woven into national security architectures. Major European network operators Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica have spent decades building cross-border infrastructure, operating under national licences, and embedding themselves in the fabric of critical national systems. It has been quiet work, largely taken for granted. In the age of AI, its strategic weight has never been greater.

Why Small States Like Albania Cannot Afford to Wait

The geopolitics of AI do not stop at Brussels. They bear directly on countries such as Albania. The question is straightforward: who will build the digital infrastructure of tomorrow’s economy, and on what terms?

According to World Bank GovTech Maturity Index data, Albania’s digital government performance improved from an unofficial 68th position in 2022 to 14th in 2025. The government has made digital infrastructure a cornerstone of its Albania 2030 strategy. Its ambition to introduce a national digital identity card in 2027, broadly alongside the EU, signals that Albania is not waiting for accession to embrace European standards. Preparing for the future is not about predicting it. It is about building systems robust enough to withstand uncertainty.

But ambition alone does not build infrastructure. Albania’s urban digital progress still coexists with significant rural gaps: fixed broadband coverage- unlike mobile coverage, remains below par in many areas. Geography is only part of the problem. The fixed telecoms market is fragmented among hundreds of local operators, most of which lack the scale, capital, or technical depth to guarantee consistent standards of cybersecurity, resilience, and service continuity.

In an AI-driven economy, fragmentation  is a liability that no country can afford. A system is only as secure as its weakest link. No country can build sovereign digital services on a patchwork of networks whose reliability varies from one municipality area to the next.
Infrastructure choices are therefore becoming geopolitical choices.

The 5G-based security platform deployed by Vodafone Albania at Tirana International Airport, in partnership with Airbus, offers a tangible example of what European-standard infrastructure in action. Airports are critical national assets. The standards that secure them do more than protect borders; they reveal allegiances.

Conclusion

The defining contest of the coming decade will not simply be over who develops the most powerful AI. It will be over who enables societies to use AI safely, regulate it credibly, and scale it without falling into strategic dependence on rivals.

For Albania, this is public policy in the service of sovereignty. Institutional ambition has set the country on the right path. What is now required is judgement and discipline: clear standards, more rigorous infrastructure criteria, and partnerships built to withstand geopolitical pressure.

Digital infrastructure, once laid, is not easily unwound. The choices made today will shape the strategic room for manoeuvre available tomorrow.

Operators that bring European standards, established scale, and genuine regulatory accountability are not merely service providers. They are strategic partners to business, the state, and society.

Jonida Lakuriqi is the Director of Public Policy, Legal, Corporate Affairs & External Relations, Vodafone Albania*