Several European countries are actively developing their own artificial intelligence (AI) systems, a move driven by concerns over reliance on foreign—particularly American—technology and a desire for digital sovereignty. This trend emerged three years after OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought AI into the mainstream, highlighting the strategic importance of controlling AI infrastructure.
The Push for Digital Independence
The European Parliament has acknowledged a “heavy dependence on foreign technologies,” particularly from the United States. A recent report noted that Europe’s reliance is unlikely to diminish without substantial investment, especially given the US’s $500 billion commitment to domestic AI development. Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s ability to independently develop, host, deploy, and govern AI systems for its citizens. This means avoiding dependence on external systems or cloud jurisdictions.
Several European nations are now responding with concrete initiatives.
National AI Projects Across Europe
Germany: The German government has launched the Sovereign Open Source Foundation Models (SOOFI) project. This initiative aims to create a fundamental, open-source AI model adaptable for various applications, including advanced robotics. Deutsche Telekom and T-systems are providing technical support, utilizing 130 NVIDIA chips and over 1,000 GPUs. SOOFI will focus on building expertise across the entire AI development pipeline, from data preparation to software training.
Switzerland: The Swiss AI Initiative introduced Apertus, the country’s first multilingual language model, in September. Apertus is fully open-source, providing access to training architecture, datasets, source code, and model weights. The model has been trained on 15 trillion tokens across over 1,000 languages, including Swiss German and Romansh, and is available on Public AI for global access. Future development will focus on domain-specific applications in law, climate, health, and education.
Poland: Poland launched its Polish Large Language Model (PLLuM) in February. This model is specifically tailored to the Polish language, addressing the complexities of inflection and syntax. The government plans to integrate PLLuM into Hive AI, a system for automating public administration operations and building a national AI ecosystem. The project includes virtual assistants for public information access and intelligent tools for document processing.
Spain: The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) unveiled Alia, an open and multilingual AI infrastructure, in January. Developed using the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, Alia provides an open database of resources in Spanish, Basque, Catalan, and Galician to support domestic AI model development. The Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) plans to integrate Alia into a tax agency chatbot and a heart failure diagnostic application. Catalonia has also launched Aina, a Catalan language model for AI product development.
The Netherlands: In 2023, a consortium of non-profit organizations began developing GPT-NL, an open-source AI model for the Dutch language and culture. The project uses copyrighted data from publishers, public sources, and synthetic data generation. A deal with Dutch publishers ensures a profit-sharing model upon release, while maintaining open-source access for academic and government use. The first version is expected before the end of 2025.
Portugal: Since 2024, a consortium of Portuguese universities has been working on Amalia, a sovereign AI model capable of answering questions, generating code, summarizing texts, and interpreting information in Portuguese. A beta version was tested in September, with a public release planned for mid-2026. The government intends to integrate Amalia into public administration services and scientific analysis.
Strategic Implications
The move towards sovereign AI is not merely a technological pursuit but a strategic response to geopolitical realities. By building independent AI capabilities, European nations aim to reduce reliance on foreign technology, protect data privacy, and foster innovation within their borders. These initiatives signal a growing recognition that AI is a critical infrastructure component, akin to energy or transportation, that nations must control to safeguard their future.
