Europe frets about U.S. AI as tech world flocks to France for G7, VivaTech

By Supantha Mukherjee and Leo Marchandon

PARIS/STOCKHOLM, June 17 - 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.

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France has been a prominent supporter of European tech sovereignty, with the government increasingly looking to replace U.S. 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."

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Leo Marchandon in Paris. Editing by Adam Jourdan and David Gaffen)