Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Joe Tsai told European policymakers on Wednesday that the continent’s technological future depends on building independent AI capacity through open-source development and computing infrastructure under domestic control. Speaking at the Wave by Vento conference in Turin, Italy, on October 7, 2026, he warned that dependence on proprietary systems controlled by the United States or China creates a strategic vulnerability no nation should accept.
“No country would want to entirely trust another country’s technology,” Tsai said. “If there’s a change in government, a change in circumstances, they can just shut off the technology from you.”
European leaders face hard choices. They’re grappling with how to position the continent as the global AI order fragments. The EU’s efforts to regulate artificial intelligence through the AI Act have been shadowed by a deeper anxiety: whatever rules Brussels imposes, European industries will still depend on American chip design, Chinese manufacturing capacity, or cloud services run by Silicon Valley giants. That leaves a technological sovereignty gap, constraining European policy autonomy and making critical infrastructure vulnerable to geopolitical shifts.
The Strategic Reality
Tsai’s argument carries weight because it reflects a structural problem that goes beyond any single company’s interests. Europe has world-class research institutions, a skilled workforce, and regulatory frameworks increasingly seen as global standards. Yet it lacks the integrated ecosystem—the chips, training infrastructure, and deployment pipelines—that would let European companies and governments build and operate large language models without relying on foreign providers.
Open-source AI offers a partial solution. Unlike proprietary models locked behind corporate APIs, open-source projects can be developed across borders, checked for bias and safety, and run on local hardware. Several European initiatives have started moving in this direction. Meta’s decision to open-source its Llama models has found a hospitable reception in European research communities. Since 2023, the EU’s investment in open-source innovation through Horizon Europe has accelerated.
Why Infrastructure Matters
But open source alone won’t deliver European technological autonomy. The continent also needs infrastructure: data centres, GPU clusters, and training facilities capable of handling modern AI’s computational demands. That calls for capital on a scale individual companies or countries struggle to sustain. The EU’s combined GDP exceeds that of either the US or China individually, yet European governments pursue fragmented AI investment strategies. France, Germany, and smaller states back separate national champions instead of pooling resources in genuinely European infrastructure projects.
Tsai’s intervention suggests an answer: coordinated European action, with shared computing facilities, joint development standards, and training capability spread across the continent rather than concentrated in a few leading hubs.
Why This Matters:
Technological sovereignty isn’t a luxury for EU policymakers; it’s a precondition for democratic autonomy in the digital age. When critical infrastructure, data processing, and AI decision-making systems run on foreign hardware controlled by foreign corporations subject to foreign governments’ laws, European citizens lose meaningful control over their digital futures. The geopolitical fracturing between the US, China, and other powers means Europe’s window to build independent capacity is narrowing.
Tsai’s challenge to European leaders is clear: invest now in shared infrastructure, coordinate investment across member states, and commit to open-source development as a public good—or accept permanent subordination to technological decisions made elsewhere. This isn’t ideology. It’s the hard logic of sovereignty in an era when AI shapes everything from healthcare to defence policy.