Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been advocating for the concept of “sovereign AI” since 2023 — and European leaders are now increasingly embracing the idea. The core principle behind sovereign AI is that each country must develop and manage its own AI ecosystem, rooted in its distinct language, history, and culture.
Last week, Huang visited major European cities including London, Paris, and Berlin, unveiling new partnerships and projects while underlining the region’s lack of robust AI infrastructure.
In the wake of growing concerns over Europe's reliance on a handful of U.S. tech giants — and after facing criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump — Huang’s message is now being taken seriously.
“We are going to invest billions in here … but Europe needs to move into AI quickly,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized during an event in Paris on Wednesday.
On the previous Monday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed £1 billion ($1.35 billion) to bolster the country’s computing capabilities and join the global race to be an "AI maker and not an AI taker."
At VivaTech, one of the largest international technology conferences, French President Emmanuel Macron described the development of AI infrastructure as “our fight for sovereignty.”
Following Nvidia’s announcement of a partnership with Deutsche Telekom to build a cloud-based AI platform in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed it as an “important step” for Europe’s digital autonomy and long-term economic stability.
In France, Nvidia is joining hands with Mistral, a homegrown AI startup, to establish a major data centre supporting Europe’s AI ambitions. The project will begin by using 18,000 Nvidia AI chips, with expansion across multiple locations scheduled for 2026.
Earlier this year, the European Union revealed its $20 billion plan to construct four AI gigafactories, aiming to reduce its dependency on U.S. firms for AI-related infrastructure. According to an EU official, the European Commission has been in communication with Huang, who assured that a portion of Nvidia’s chip production would be allocated for these facilities.
Nvidia’s GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are already the backbone of AI data centres globally — from the U.S. to Japan, India, and the Middle East. In Europe, the sovereign AI movement presents an opportunity to empower domestic cloud service providers, startups, and chipmakers with government backing and a renewed focus on local data infrastructure.
Despite the momentum, the road ahead isn’t without obstacles. High power consumption is a major concern. Data centres already account for 3% of the EU’s electricity demand, and this number is expected to rise sharply due to AI adoption.
Mistral, which has secured a little over $1 billion in funding, is striving to become a leading European AI firm. However, it still operates on a fraction of the budgets available to U.S. tech giants.
“Hyperscalers are spending $10 billion to $15 billion per quarter in their infrastructure. Who in Europe can afford that exactly?” noted Pascal Brier, Chief Innovation Officer at Capgemini, a partner of both Nvidia and Mistral.
“It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything, but we have to be cognizant about the fact that there will always be a gap.”
Mistral has launched multiple AI models that are actively being used by businesses. However, most companies integrate these models alongside those from global players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta.
“Most of the time it’s not Mistral or the rest, it’s Mistral and the rest,” explained Brier.
At a VivaTech panel, 31-year-old Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, sat beside Huang and remarked:
“There’s no reason why Europe shouldn’t have tech champions. This is a gigantic dream.