A new Sweden-based social media platform called “W” has entered the growing field of European tech initiatives seeking to challenge the dominance of US-based Big Tech companies, as the European Commission announced its participation on Wednesday.

The platform, which was first introduced at the World Economic Forum in January, promotes itself as a digital space built on “verified human users, transparency, privacy and free speech.” It has now launched a beta version, with access limited to users who pass a vetting process before being allowed to post content.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are among the early official users of the platform, signalling political support for the initiative. Users are required to verify their identity either by registering their real name or by using “W Identity,” a separate verification tool that scans passports or national identity documents directly on a user’s device.

According to the company, W was developed by a group of entrepreneurs working across media, technology and artificial intelligence. The platform states that it plans to host data exclusively on European servers operated by European companies, aligning its infrastructure with EU data protection standards.

CEO Anna Zeiter has said the platform intends to rely on European service providers, including Switzerland-based encrypted email company Proton and Finland’s cloud computing firm UpCloud, as part of its commitment to privacy-focused operations within Europe.

The launch comes amid a broader push across the continent to reduce dependence on US technology giants and strengthen what policymakers describe as “digital sovereignty.” Governments in France, Germany and the Netherlands have previously raised concerns that reliance on foreign-owned platforms could expose Europe to security risks and limit control over sensitive data.

W is part of a wider wave of European alternatives to mainstream social media networks. Other emerging platforms include Bulle in France, Eurosky, Monnett and eYou, all aiming to offer regionally governed digital ecosystems.

Some of these platforms recently signed a declaration supporting the development of Europe’s “social stack,” a shared digital infrastructure intended to provide a more diverse and resilient online environment. The initiative argues for reducing reliance on dominant global platforms and promoting alternatives with governance structures rooted in Europe.

However, analysts have noted that competing with established social media giants presents significant challenges. Experts have pointed out that new platforms often struggle to maintain large user bases, as they typically lack the scale, engagement features and convenience that have made existing networks dominant in global digital communication.

Despite these challenges, supporters of W and similar projects say the push reflects a broader effort to reshape Europe’s digital landscape and assert greater control over data, privacy and online governance in an increasingly competitive global tech environment.

Microsoft has taken a major step toward reducing its reliance on external artificial intelligence partners, unveiling seven in-house AI models at its Build 2026 developer conference in San Francisco. The move signals a strategic shift as the company seeks greater control over its AI stack while its key investee firms prepare for high-profile public listings.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, told attendees that the industry is entering a new phase in which companies must do more than simply consume frontier AI systems. “We believe the time has come for every company to move from consuming a frontier model to fully participating at the frontier,” he said.

At the centre of the announcement is MAI-Thinking-1, Microsoft’s first reasoning model built entirely from scratch using commercially licensed data and without distillation from external systems. The model includes 35 billion active parameters and a 256,000-token context window, designed for complex reasoning tasks, coding, and long-form instruction handling.

Microsoft also introduced MAI-Code-1-Flash, a coding-focused model integrated into GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code, aimed at converting natural language prompts into functional software code. The company said these tools will run on Azure infrastructure, allowing it to reduce costs currently paid to external model providers and potentially offer cheaper services to developers.

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, said internal testing suggested strong performance gains. After optimisation for consulting firm McKinsey, he said the new models outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 in quality while offering what Microsoft estimates as up to ten times better cost efficiency, based on scaled public pricing comparisons.

In independent evaluations conducted by Surge, Microsoft’s third-party rating partner, MAI-Thinking-1 was reportedly preferred over Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.6, while matching Claude Opus 4.6 on coding benchmarks.

Alongside its AI announcements, Microsoft revealed progress in quantum computing. The company’s new Majorana 2 chip is said to be 1,000 times more stable than its predecessor, extending qubit lifespan from milliseconds to an average of 20 seconds. While still far from practical deployment, Microsoft believes this marks a meaningful step toward scalable quantum machines.

Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president of Microsoft Quantum, said the company aims to deliver a commercially useful quantum system by 2029, though current prototypes contain only 12 qubits, far short of the millions required for full-scale systems.

The announcements come as Microsoft’s AI partners move toward public markets. Anthropic has filed confidentially for an IPO following a major funding round valuing it at $965 billion, while OpenAI is also preparing a filing. Microsoft has invested heavily in both companies, committing billions of dollars while integrating their models into Azure.

The new direction suggests Microsoft is positioning itself to compete directly with its own partners, as the race for dominance in advanced AI and next-generation computing intensifies.