Why Europe cannot let the AI sovereignty ship sail

Date:
Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:34:24 +0000

Description:
Discussions about technological sovereignty in Europe can tend towards doomerism. It's easy to see why.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Discussions about technological sovereignty in Europe can tend towards doomerism. It is easy to see why. A handful of hyper-scalers in the US and China control the foundational infrastructure of the modern world. The reliance on these technologies from companies and governments in Europe grows with each week that passes.

Near-total dependence on foreign-hosted and trained AI models presents a massive national security risk. If there isnt a sovereign layer to your infrastructure, you dont have control over the future. What if the plug is pulled or if security is compromised? These are the nightmare scenarios being discussed in boardrooms and government departments across the continent. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Robert Vassoyan Social Links Navigation

Group CEO, SCC. And yet, Europe has many reasons to feel optimistic in its pursuit of sovereignty. Perhaps the LLM ship has sailed, but it is what comes next that is truly exciting.

In areas such as quantum computing and robotics and their application across industries including healthcare and climate science there is evidence that Europes combination of engineering talent and deep customer/market knowledge is laying the foundation for the next wave of society-shaping innovation. You may like Digital sovereignty is no longer a policy debate, its technology decision Zscalers Casper Klynge on the question of European sovereignty, the transatlantic relationship, and the future of AI Why digital sovereignty is becoming a priority for every industry

This goes to the heart of what AI sovereignty really means: developing a technology that is both a great product, with no compromise on efficiency and scalability, while also solving the biggest possible problems of today or tomorrow. A time for action Now is the time to act. Sovereignty, particularly AI sovereignty, is an absolute priority for European governments and, increasingly, for customers and the public as geopolitical tensions escalate. We are already seeing many examples of companies in Europe building parallel IT infrastructure where they would usually be dependent on hyperscalers.
There is also a growing trend towards on-premise cloud and data solutions, in a bid to create sovereign solutions. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
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So the question is, can we, those of us outside the US and China, build the best products that solve the most pressing problems? The answer is a resounding yes, but we need to ensure that our approach isnt purely
defensive. True sovereignty is about more than having the right level of regulation to protect ourselves against external systems we cant control. If we want to be sustainable, we need to build alternatives that are at least as good; if we compromise on that, it will fail.

If we take healthcare as an example of sovereignty. It is one of the most sensitive industries when it comes to data, given how personal and confidential medical data is. If your life were dependent on an AI solution that could help define the best personalized or predictive care, and that solution was not sovereign, would you hesitate? Of course not. It is a big problem, but there are companies out there nearing a solution.

A fantastic example of this is the French scale-up ALAN, which is
increasingly disrupting the whole medical insurance market thanks to a truly end-to-end designed business process. We need to play to our strengths in these use-case areas where technology has a life-changing impact. In June
this year, it announced that it had raised 480m, valuing the company at
5.5bn. What to read next Europes tech reset gives the UK a chance to lead on security and sovereignty AI means CIOs need sovereign cloud more than ever
Why sovereign data is the future of UK AI Hindering factors There are, of course, some factors that might hinder our progress, such as overregulation and the constraints that entrepreneurs face. We cannot ignore the challenge
of funding; the US benefits from a $30 trillion pension fund that flows massively into the PE and VC markets. We are far away from that in Europe,
and we must find solutions urgently.

There are some positive developments, such as the European Unions flagship 95.5 billion R&D funding program, Horizon Europe, which supports 200-300 groundbreaking scientific discoveries annually across the EU and the UK. But these initiatives are still relatively small and only represent a step in the right direction.

And Europes unique digital market is still not as easy to address as the single US or Chinese market. From my experience on the boards of several European scaleups, many of them find it easier to attack the US market once theyve gained momentum in their home country than to attack another European country. Ultimately, all of these problems need to be solved.

It is also vital that we choose our battles. We shouldnt be chasing after American or Chinese LLMs or hyperscalers. We will waste time trying to play catch-up. The reality is that we have a proven track record in use
case-driven areas, such as healthcare, and that is where we must focus.

Our approach must be to anticipate where the market is moving. Two areas that are emerging as potentially revolutionary are quantum and robotics. The US is already hedging its bets. President Trump recently signed a bill mandating that the US will have a quantum computer by 2028 and requiring that cyber systems adopt post-quantum crypto-consistent solutions. This is what sovereignty is: its not hyperscalers; its technology that will significantly impact everyone's lives.

The good news is that in Europe, we have many examples of startups producing world-leading technology in quantum and robotics. Ultimately, the success of sovereignty will depend on our ability to build the best products in Europe
to solve our greatest problems. We wont be sustainable if the sovereign alternative isnt as good as the solutions developed elsewhere. In Europe, we have all the tools to achieve sovereignty. But we must act now. Manage your data with the best business cloud storage . This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives , our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

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