U.S. Ambassador warns EU: scale back big tech fines or lose out in the AI economy

The United States Ambassador to the European Union, Andrew Puzder, issued a blunt ultimatum to Brussels on Friday, warning that the bloc’s aggressive regulatory stance against American technology giants could permanently sideline Europe from the global artificial intelligence race.

In an interview with CNBC on March 27, 2026, Puzder argued that the "American AI hardware stack" - encompassing the essential data centers, processing power, and proprietary data held by U.S. firms - is the only viable engine for the modern economy.

He cautioned that if the EU continues to "move the goalposts" with massive financial penalties, those companies may simply stop investing in the continent."

If you regulate them off the continent, you’re not going to be a part of the AI economy," Puzder stated. "You can’t over-regulate and hit companies with huge fines and expect to have access to the very tools that build the future."

A deepening transatlantic rift

The Ambassador’s comments come during a period of record-breaking regulatory action by the European Commission. Over the past year, the EU has leveraged the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) to impose several multi-billion euro penalties:

• Google: Fined €2.95 billion in September for anti-competitive practices in the ad-tech market.

• Apple: Hit with a €500 million penalty in February over App Store restrictions.

• Meta: Facing a €200 million fine for its "pay or consent" advertising model.

• X (formerly Twitter): Fined €120 million in December for transparency breaches, an action U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently called "an attack on all American tech platforms.”

The "hardware stack" argument

Puzder’s warning highlights a growing concern in Washington that European "digital sovereignty" is evolving into digital protectionism. He emphasized that AI development is not a localized endeavor but requires a massive, integrated infrastructure that currently resides almost exclusively in the United States.

By targeting the profitability of these firms, Puzder argues, the EU is inadvertently cutting off its own access to the high-performance computing clusters and data ecosystems necessary to train and run next-generation AI models.

EU stance

While the Commission has not officially responded to Puzder’s latest remarks, EU officials have historically maintained that their regulations are "company-agnostic" and designed to protect consumer privacy and fair competition. European lawmakers argue that a "wild west" AI economy without guardrails would pose greater long-term risks to societal stability than a slower, regulated rollout.