Luke Vargas

And that's it for this special episode of What's News Sunday.

Today's show was produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Sandra Kilhoff and deputy editor Chris Sinsley.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back on your feet again on Monday morning.

Until then, thanks for listening.

Hey, What's News listeners, it's Sunday, February 22nd.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world.

And this week, do foreign governments need American tech?

Last month, France ordered government workers to stop using Teams, Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting and WebEx, claiming that their proliferation had made France dependent on non-European actors.

And instead, government workers were to use a homegrown communication tool developed by the French state.

The move is just the latest example of a growing tech sovereignty trend as countries seek to build their own digital technologies from communications platforms to AI systems, cloud networks, or even chips, and reduce their dependence on the U.S.

private sector.

Coming up, we'll speak to the man leading France's digital sovereignty push and talk to journal tech reporter Sam Schechner about what it could all mean for Silicon Valley.

Let's get right to it.

Well, the French state may be eager to cut the cord on Silicon Valley, but will digital sovereignty actually become more than a slogan?

And what's at stake here for U.S.

tech?

Journal tech reporter Sam Schechner joins me now.

Sam, set the scene for us.

What is digital sovereignty and why is everyone in Europe these days talking about it?