Europe cannot be sovereign without control of its own AI

This article originally appeared in EU-Startups, by Sean Blanchfield, and was published on 13 October 2026. Read the original.

AI is steadily being integrated further into the systems and workflows that run many European businesses. What was once a tool for analysing information and assisting employees with basic administrative tasks, is now an integral part of how many of these businesses operate.

The problem with Europe's growing dependence on AI, is that much of the technology they are dependent upon comes from elsewhere.

The companies producing the most sophisticated AI models and supporting infrastructure are concentrated heavily in the US and China, giving them huge influence over the technology that is becoming so important to the global economy. That influence is becoming more significant as these nations continue to develop competing AI ecosystems, with their rivalry increasingly tied to their wider geopolitical interests.

Recent reports suggest that the US is preparing to tell dozens of countries to choose between rival US and China-led AI ecosystems, and China last week called for countries to respect their "digital sovereignty". AI sovereignty is no longer an abstract debate. We are watching AI divide along geopolitical lines in real time, and Europe is now at risk of becoming a customer of whichever superpower controls the intelligence it relies upon.

Europe needs choice, not complete self-sufficiency

The vulnerability this presents was arguably already demonstrated in June, when the US ordered Anthropic to restrict foreign nationals' access to its most advanced AI models, prompting European concern about how reliant businesses and governments could become on American frontier AI.

For Europe, the question is how much autonomy will it have to make its own decisions as this divide widens?

Europe should be able to use the best models available, wherever they might be developed, but it cannot build its economy on imported AI that might get cut off.

This is not to say that Europe needs to be completely self-sufficient in AI, but it needs enough choice to switch suppliers and maintain viable alternatives.

That choice becomes more important as AI continues to become embedded into the everyday running of businesses.

In July, The European Commission launched a call for up to seven AI Gigafactories, backed by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding and intended to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment.

However, the question of sovereignty goes beyond the models themselves, it also extends to the knowledge businesses create through AI.

Businesses risk renting back their own knowledge

Every time an employee uses AI, they are writing down how their work gets done, often for the first time. The companies that hold onto that knowledge can use it to fuel their AI transformation. But many risk handing it to their vendors, teaching them how to commoditise their businesses, and will end up renting back their own know-how.

The consequences of this extend beyond technology. AI will shape which companies become most productive and which industries adapt quickest. If European companies are importing these capabilities from foreign entities, the value created will likely flow outside of Europe, also.

This creates a different type of dependency. A business might be able to switch model or supplier, but separating from a system that has spent years learning its processes and organisational knowledge is much more difficult. The longer a business spends building its operations around external AI providers, the harder it will be to separate themselves from it.

For startups and scale-ups, this is particularly important. Their advantage often lies in their specialist knowledge, their understanding of a problem and the distinctive way they carry out their work. If that knowledge becomes trapped within an external platform, they risk giving away part of what makes the business valuable.

This does not mean that European businesses need to stop using foreign AI. This is unrealistic, and also poses the threat of Europe falling further behind.

Europe's opportunity is applied AI

Europe's opportunity instead lies in building on top of these models and turning them into systems that are designed around the needs of its own businesses. This is where European businesses can build intellectual property and competitive advantage around AI, even if the technology is developed elsewhere.

The opportunity is also in building the infrastructure that lets businesses use different models, without rebuilding their systems each time the market changes. This flexibility can help businesses avoid vendor dependency and maintain greater control over how they use AI.

This applied layer is where AI is connected to a company's systems and put to work. It is also where businesses can govern what agents are allowed to do, monitor their actions, test their performance and investigate when something goes wrong. Europe may not lead every part of the race to build the largest model, but it can lead in making AI safe, accountable and useful for the companies deploying it.

Europe has a large industrial base, strong expertise across sectors, and businesses that understand their own processes better than any general-purpose model ever could.

Sovereignty means control and continuity: control over what AI agents can do, ownership of the workflows and knowledge they create, and the freedom to choose or change the underlying technology.

Europe has the talent, industry and trust to become a genuine power in AI, but that does not mean it has to be a distant third participant.

It must be the counterbalance to this race: deploy its talent and expertise into the applied layer, and build systems that are safe, sovereign and equitable by design, for the benefit of everyone, not just those in Europe.

We need AI that works for us, not the other way around. Building a sovereign applied AI layer that can be deployed in good faith, creating productivity and lasting values for businesses across the globe, is Europe's decisive opportunity in this race.