Access to artificial intelligence models has become a matter of economic autonomy and national security, as highlighted in mid-June when Anthropic, on US government orders, restricted foreign access to its top AI software, citing national security concerns.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stressed that Germany must urgently catch up in AI, warning that without shaping technological innovation, the country could "very quickly end up among the victims."
The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and French partner Inria are set to sign an agreement to establish a Franco-German AI center, with offices opening in July and operations starting in the fourth quarter.
French company Mistral AI, a European leader in large language models, secured investments of around €1.7 billion in September 2025, valuing the company at nearly €12 billion. Dutch firm ASML acquired an 11% stake in Mistral.
Bernhard Rohleder, head of Bitkom, emphasized that Europe must develop its own powerful AI offerings to remain competitive. He defined digital sovereignty as having substantial capabilities in key technologies and the ability to independently decide from which countries to source technologies.
The German government implemented European AI regulation in February. Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger announced plans for a "lean AI oversight structure clearly focused on the needs of the economy," pledging not to create "bloated bureaucracy."
DFKI's Lennart Kuhn highlighted innovative German companies like Black Forest Labs, Langdock, Codesphere, Aleph Alpha, and Neura Robotics. Rohleder noted that many German firms are working on AI offerings, including foundation models and application models in medicine and education.
Success requires not only funding but also attracting talent, less regulation, and government support as an anchor customer. European providers can develop competitive advantages in data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, transparency, and infrastructure control.
Source: www.dw.com