The manufacturing industry is in the midst of a digital transformation. As part of the increasing internal and external integration of manufacturing companies, ever more significant volumes of data are being exchanged in order to meet the challenges of a globalized production world. The European initiative Gaia-X aims to establish a federal data infrastructure based on European law to ensure data sovereignty in the resulting digital value creation ecosystems. Under the conditions thus created, it will be possible for manufacturing companies to develop entirely new business models. Within the scope of these business models, the benefit of data sharing in the sense of added value will come into focus. The following paper presents opportunities for the development of disruptive digital business models for manufacturing companies in the context of Gaia-X. The paper focuses on how data sharing can be used to create value. Furthermore, it highlights how the transition from technological use case to monetizable value creation can be made with data-based, digital business models in the context of Gaia-X. Finally, the state of work in business model development in the Gaia-X project EuProGigant is presented for discussion and exemplified by two use cases.