The Europe has built excellent rules on artificial intelligence over time, such as the Gdpr andAI Act, but neglected to build the ability to produce its own AIThe result is that it regulates technologies it doesn't control, on infrastructure it doesn't own, with development tools decided elsewhere. This dependency is not just about processors: it's about the entire AI production system., from chip design to the tools used to write programs, from cloud platforms to language models. Whoever controls these layers ultimately also controls the conditions under which European institutions, businesses, and citizens will be able to access artificial intelligence in the coming decades.
History offers an instructive precedent: in the 1990s Europe led the world in mobile telephony, with the GSM standard adopted everywhere. Then, in the transition to the third generation (3G), it agreed to incorporate into its standard elements designed by an American company, the Qualcomm, which held the intellectual property rights to key algorithms. The result was that for every 3G phone sold in the world, including those produced by Nokia, Ericsson e Siemens, royalties were paid to the American company. Qualcomm didn't make phones: it collected tolls on other people's standards.
In artificial intelligence, the mechanism is the same but the scope is greater: it doesn't concern a single algorithm but the entire chain of tools needed to develop AI systems. And unlike mobile, this time Europe isn't even producing the end devices. June 3, 2026For the first time, the European Commission has taken measures that go beyond regulation and attempt to build its own industrial capacity.
This is a significant shift. But the implementation methods, scale of resources, governance, and prioritization of hardware and software will determine whether this effort succeeds. royal sovereignty or better organized dependence.
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The published text is the third in a series of analyses dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and technological sovereignty by Franco Bernabe, President of TechVisory, which FIRSTonline hosts weekly courtesy of the author and the AI Magazine.
Here are the precedents AI, time is running out in Europe / AI, the French gamble, and the risk of a patchwork of national initiatives
