Artificial Intelligence may prove to be the most important technology of our generation, making it crucial that Europe fully leverages the opportunities that it unlocks. The European Commission’s ApplyAI Strategy and its sectoral flagship projects – published earlier today – will play an significant role in underpinning Europe’s success here, so it’s vital to get them right.
First and foremost, it is important to remember that not only is there no AI without the cloud, but increasingly, AI will be the cloud. AI workloads depend on massive compute, storage and connectivity, which means sovereign cloud infrastructure is the backbone of Europe’s AI future. And if Europe wants a thriving AI ecosystem, it needs to make sure that European cloud providers are not disadvantaged.
As explained in our position paper about the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act (CAIDA), building up Europe’s AI Capacity depends on the following:
- Fair competition: AI is increasingly bundled into dominant software suites, forcing customers to pay for tools they may not need while shutting out rivals. The Commission should draw clear lines against such forced bundling and clamp down on restrictive licensing that blocks interoperability. AI innovation in Europe depends on ensuring customers can combine tools and services freely across different providers.
- Interoperability and openness: Proprietary APIs and closed development tools risk locking customers into a handful of global platforms. Europe’s approach must be built on open technical standards and interoperable frameworks, so that AI models, apps and services are portable and can run across a customer’s choice of clouds without friction.
- Access to AI chips: Next-generation processors are indispensable for training and running AI efficiently. Today, supply is constrained and there are bottlenecks that leave European providers struggling to obtain them. Europe must secure investment to gain fair and equal access to these chips if it wants to avoid strategic exclusion from the AI race.
- Federated solutions: Europe should not try to replicate the business model of US hyperscalers – instead, we must focus on our strength, especially our vibrant and innovative SMEs. Projects like Fulcrum show how smaller providers can pool resources into a federated cloud, and which will allow them to deliver low-latency, scalable AI capacity across the continent. These models should be explicitly recognised, supported in procurement, and freed from unnecessary regulatory burdens.
- Funding tailored to AI: AI workloads are capital-intensive and volatile, requiring upfront investment before demand materialises. Europe should design risk-sharing financing tools, such as ‘sovereign cloud credits’ (redeemable only with compliant EU providers), to generate stable demand and prevent public money from flowing to foreign hyperscalers.
The ApplyAI Strategy is an opportunity to empower Europe in the age of Artificial Intelligence. If done right, it can give Europe a long-term foundation built on European values such as fair competition and open standards as well as sovereignty. We stand ready to work with European Commission, including as a members of the future ApplyAI Alliance, to ensure its success.