Europe Scrambles for AI Sovereignty After US Cuts Access to Anthropic's Advanced Models

Anthropic shutdown ignites calls for sovereign AI across Europe | Fortune

On Friday, when the U.S. government pulled the plug on global access to Anthropic's most powerful AI models, it confirmed some of Europe's worst fears. For the first time, Washington had effectively used what some had dubbed a "kill switch" -- the ability to cut off foreign access to U.S. AI systems. Politicians around the world responded with panic and anxiety about their own countries' dependence on U.S. AI technology. In Europe especially, it reignited calls for what officials describe as "sovereign AI" -- the idea that countries should control the AI models, computing infrastructure, and data that underpin the increasingly critical technology, rather than depending on systems that can be restricted or withdrawn by foreign governments. Europe has, for some time, been heavily reliant on the U.S. for its technological infrastructure. The EU relies on non-EU countries for more than 80% of its technology and 70% of its cloud computing, according to the European Commission and the European Parliament. The U.S. and China together control roughly 90% of global AI computing infrastructure, according to AI research firm Epoch AI, leaving Europe with limited capacity to train or run AI models independently. Over the past few years, and particularly since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term in office, countries have increasingly seen American behavior as erratic and threatening to the established global order, with everything from unexpected tariffs to demands that Denmark surrender Greenland to the U.S. In light of this, that dependency on U.S. technology has started to feel like a strategic vulnerability. Some governments had begun taking concrete steps to reduce their reliance on the US: the European Parliament replaced Google with Qwant, a French privacy-focused search engine, citing concerns over personal data collection, while Germany, France, and the Netherlands have moved Microsoft off public-sector infrastructure. But the Anthropic shutdown makes the stakes, when it comes to the AI race, harder to ignore. Aside from France's Mistral, whose models currently lag their American counterparts, Europe does not have a frontier AI company, and the continent's data center build-out has also been plagued by high energy costs, capital constraints, and regulation. In the UK, Member of Parliament Al Carns said British hospitals, companies, and researchers had been suddenly stripped of access to Fable 5. Tom Tugendhat, a former UK security minister, said that the incident demonstrated that national security is now more about "code than cannons," criticizing the UK's regulatory approach for prioritizing safety over building competitive AI capacity. Kanishka Narayan, the UK's minister for AI, said the move had significant implications for defense. "We're seeing again and again the most capable models used in drones, counter-drone defence systems and cyber security -- those are now the fundamental fault line for who wins and who loses in warfare," he said. "The central question for our national security and defence is a question of our AI capability." Politicians across the continent also called for Europe to accelerate the development of its own AI models. Many reactions focused on Mistral, the EU's most credible AI contender, which is reportedly in talks to raise $3.5 billion in funding at a $23.2 billion valuation. Former French prime minister Édouard Philippe said the incident showed that AI is now critical infrastructure, as essential as electricity or the internet, and that infrastructure controlled by others is infrastructure that others can unplug. Bruno Retailleau, a French 2027 presidential candidate, said the move should serve as a "wake-up call," arguing that a nation that depends on others for its technology is a nation that can be unplugged overnight. In Finland, MEP Aura Salla said Europe cannot keep building its tech stack on access that can be switched off overnight by a foreign government, while in Germany, MEP Sergey Lagodinsky pushed for the EU to team up with middle powers such as Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the U.K. to pool compute capacity through a consortium approach. "This is something that we have always known, but never really felt," Sandra Wachter, a professor of technology and regulation at the University of Oxford, told Fortune. "Everybody is aware that we are very dependent on technology from the U.S...but we have never quite felt what it's meant to be on the shorter side of the stick -- on the side that actually has to face the kill switch." Europe's policy response Just weeks before the shutdown, the European Commission had unveiled what it billed as its answer to this vulnerability. On June 3, it released the European Technological Sovereignty Package, targeting cloud computing, AI, semiconductors, and open source. Its two main legislative proposals -- Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act -- set out objectives for the EU's semiconductor industry and local cloud and AI providers. The Cloud and AI Development Act aims to triple data center capacity in the EU over the next five to seven years. "We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said. The package targets an estimated €422 billion ($490 billion) in total investment across semiconductors, data centers, cloud, AI, and open-source software over the next decade, though the Commission has yet to confirm how exactly that will be financed, saying it will consult with member states and the European Investment Bank on funding mechanisms. Critics have questioned Europe's capacity to deliver on the commitment. The Commission has deferred to member states on how procurement rules would actually be enforced, and under the proposed regulation, only around 10% of cloud contracts would carry a strong European sovereignty standard, with the remaining 90% open to all suppliers. Competition economist Cristina Caffarra, founder of the Eurostack Industry Initiative, told The Parliment the package was "very feeble," arguing the Commission had watered down previously stronger mechanism for buying European under pressure from Washington. Some experts, such as Wachter, argued that Europe should focus on developing smaller, more efficient AI models, which can be run using smaller data centers and consume less electricity, rather than trying to match the scale of American frontier systems. If the capability gap amounts to only a few percentage points, Wachter questioned whether closing that gap justified the costs of an all-out race. "This whole idea of racing -- if we're not racing now, we're going to be left behind -- is also a narrative that plays into the hands of the people that are developing those technologies," she said. She also suggested that building alliances with like-minded countries around the world offered a more sustainable path for Europe than trying to out-build the U.S. alone. American soft-power The concerns about over-dependence on America extended well beyond Europe. At February's AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, conversations about the sovereign AI issue -- and a potential coalition of "middle powers" -- were front and center. Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian computer scientist and AI pioneer, previously told Fortune the question of AI sovereignty was also one of global power. "It's a question of democracy and a kind of equitable world order in which no one country can use technology to dominate the others," he said. "We don't want to end up in a world where we have two hegemons who each control part of the world." While the U.S. may have had legitimate national security grounds for acting, the manner of the intervention risks undermining America's influence globally, according to Jonathan Iwry, a fellow at the Wharton Accountable AI Lab. "America's global influence rests on more than economic and military power alone," Iwry told Fortune. "It has also depended on moral leadership and being viewed as a reliable steward of an open international order -- one whose institutions, technologies, and markets set the standard and inspire other nations to choose democracy over autocracy." The move may also hurt a broader strategy the U.S. has been pursuing to shape the global AI landscape before China can. Pax Silica, for example, is a U.S.-led technology alliance designed to build secure semiconductor supply chains and advanced manufacturing networks among strategic partners, with the explicit aim of countering Chinese AI development. The alliance -- which includes Japan, South Korea, the U.K., and Israel -- is Washington's attempt to lock allies into the U.S.-aligned AI infrastructure ecosystem. At the New Delhi summit, India became its latest member, a significant diplomatic win for Washington. Frontier AI has itself become an instrument of American soft power, Iwry said, and the way the U.S. exercises control over it will shape whether allies continue to orient their technological ecosystems around the United States. "Exercising unilateral control might increase U.S. leverage in the short term, but it could also encourage allies to reduce their dependence on American AI over the longer term," he said. "The broader challenge isn't just protecting U.S. national security, but doing so in a way that preserves our allies' trust and confidence. Otherwise, the very actions the U.S. is taking to preserve its global leadership might encourage its allies to turn elsewhere."

Sovereignty fears to dog AI enthusiasm at France's Vivatech

Paris (France) (AFP) - Europe's biggest tech trade fair Vivatech opens Wednesday in Paris for a 10th-anniversary edition where enthusiasm for generative AI will rub shoulders with anxiety about the continent's technological dependence. Organisers have recruited Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos as Wednesday's star guest, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian leader Narendra Modi expected Thursday. Also joining the roughly 15,000 start-ups showing off their inventions until Saturday will be French researcher Yann LeCun, who made waves this year with a new company focused on physical AI after leaving Facebook's parent company Meta. Meanwhile debate around Europe's tech sovereignty was stoked on the eve of the event by French Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu. He announced that the country's domestic intelligence agency would break with the American data sifting giant Palantir in favour of local firm ChapsVision. Washington had already pushed tech dependency to the top of the agenda last week. It banned non-American users from the powerful AI models Fable and Mythos, whose creator Anthropic withdrew access for all users in response. European sovereignty With 200 German start-ups in Paris as this year's guest nation, organisers want to make the 10th year of Vivatech a celebration of European cross-border cooperation. "In a time of growing technological and global fragmentation, this spotlight underscores Europe's ambition to affirm its sovereignty and take the lead in innovation," they said. ASML, the Dutch firm that makes ultraviolet lithography machines indispensable to advanced chipmaking, is sending its chief executive Christophe Fouquet to Paris. The company's commanding place in the global semiconductor value chain has recently propelled it to Europe's biggest company by market value. Dancing robots Bringing together founders, investors, industry associations and national delegations, Vivatech is a hive of activity every year. Organisers have expanded the 2026 event to 70,000 square metres (750,000 square feet) from its usual 50,000, and visitor numbers could top last year's record of 180,000. This year tech firms were able to offer demos of their wares for the first time on Paris' Champs-Elysees avenue. Spectacular robotics displays are scheduled for one of the main stages on Wednesday. Chinese firms Unitree and AgiBot aim to again wow spectators with their dextrous humanoid robots, while European start-ups including Genesis and PAL Robotics will also be on show. Fans of AI automation may be more excited by the Thursday appearance of Peter Steinberger, the Austrian creator of the open-source AI agent OpenClaw that took Silicon Valley by storm earlier this year.

France and Germany call for European AI sovereignty at VivaTech

When the US suspended access to Anthropic's latest AI models last week, it reminded Europe that rules can change overnight. At VivaTech in Paris, France and Germany said the answer is sovereignty -- and the window to build it is now. The French and German economy and digital ministers issued a joint call to action at the opening of the VivaTech conference in Paris on Wednesday, arguing that Europe must move quickly to build genuine technological sovereignty or risk being left behind as a spectator in the decade's defining technological shift. France's minister for the economy, finance, industry and energy sovereignty, Roland Lescure, opened with an honest acknowledgement of the mood in the room. "I can see some of us are worried [about the risks of artificial intelligence] -- and worry is good. Concern is good," he said, though he cautioned against fear as a guide. "None of us is going to do it alone." Drawing on the historic role of the Franco-German relationship, he argued that when the two nations align, "Europe moves". "I am convinced that France and Germany can make it -- and be at the heart of what comes next. The next 10 years will be important," he said. Germany's Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation, Karsten Wildberger, addressed the United States' decision last week to ban Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence models for foreign nationals, including the company's employees. "The suspension of access to the most advanced models makes one thing clear to everyone," he said. "This is no longer an access debate; rules can change overnight, and sovereignty means we can still act if things like that happen," he said. Wildberger then said AI sovereignty is not protectionism but a necessity for agency. "Sovereignty is not isolation. It is openness from a position of strength," added. As for Germany, he said the country is implementing a national data centre strategy with a target of quadrupling AI capacity by 2030. The country is also working on a sovereign cloud infrastructure. But he said that government alone cannot carry the effort. "The heroes here are the great startups," he said. "Europe can do innovation, and we do scale, and we do matter." Both ministers pointed to new bilateral initiatives between France and Germany as the practical starting point. "When we pull our technologies together, we shape what comes next," the German minister said. "We will not be spectators of the years ahead." Europe does not lack ideas, or talent, or companies willing to build, he added. "It is not a question of whether Europe is ready. What Europe needs now is courage, ambition, and the discipline to execute and turn this into scale."

Europe frets about US AI as tech world flocks to France for G7, VivaTech

European leaders and tech executives are focusing on technological sovereignty. Discussions at G7 and VivaTech highlight concerns about American AI dominance. Europe aims to build its own AI champions. This involves boosting regional cloud and chip industries. The goal is to reduce reliance on U.S. technology. France is pushing for domestic solutions in government services. Europe's quest for technological sovereignty will dominate discussions at the G7 in France and the VivaTech conference in Paris this week, as policymakers and technology executives fret about American AI, with alternatives remaining scarce. The gatherings come days after the United States tightened restrictions on Anthropic's most advanced AI models for foreign nationals, underscoring Europe's vulnerability that political whims could derail its race to build domestic AI champions. "Tech sovereignty will be top of mind this week at VivaTech," Ana Paula Assis, senior vice president at IBM, told Reuters. "For European organisations to get ⁠this right, ⁠it is vital to understand sovereignty is about having control where it matters - not where the technology is from." The debate reflects a broader dilemma facing Europe: how to maintain strategic autonomy while remaining dependent on American technology companies that dominate cloud computing, semiconductor design, and cutting-edge AI research. The Group of Seven (G7) nations have gathered in Evian, France, where they are meeting top executives from the biggest AI companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, Alphabet's Google, and Mistral to discuss AI competitiveness, regulation, and reliance on China for critical minerals. In Paris, over 180,000 visitors, startups, investors, policymakers and executives including Amazon's Jeff Bezos are expected to attend VivaTech, where ⁠discussions are likely to focus as much on geopolitics and policy as on the actual tech. French startup Mistral, seen as Europe's leading AI contender, is doubling down on partnerships with European firms, particularly in industries where the region says ⁠it has an edge. Despite billions of euros of investment, European AI firms continue to rely heavily on U.S.-controlled cloud infrastructure, chips, and foundational AI models. Europe pushes to boost regional cloud, chips France has been a prominent supporter of European tech sovereignty, with the government increasingly looking to replace US providers in government services. "We cannot rely on tools developed by foreign powers. France must have its own tools," said Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Tuesday. The European Commission is assessing the practical implications of the U.S. export control directive and that measures should not be discriminatory against partners. European policymakers have increasingly framed AI as a matter of economic and national security. The European Commission recently unveiled plans for AI "gigafactories" and large-scale computing infrastructure designed to provide the region with sovereign access to computing power. It has proposed laws to boost domestic cloud, AI and semiconductor industries and cut reliance on U.S. Big Tech, though critics say Europe remains years behind U.S. ⁠rivals. "It's patently clear, if it wasn't before, how important it is for Europe to have access to an AI service that it can control, that will never be switched off on a whim," said telecoms firm Orange in a statement. For companies, boosting sovereignty comes at a cost, however, and they need to weigh that against a perceived risk, said Capgemini chief operating officer Karine Brunet, adding that European cloud alternatives require paying premiums of up to 40%. "The alternative is not simply replacing one provider with another," said Francois Bitouzet, managing director of VivaTech. "It is about building more resilient technology strategies, where companies can draw on European innovation for the most critical parts of their stack while still working with global partners where it makes sense."