EU pushes for AI independence as US and China lead

EU leaders at an international summit in Dublin promoted a homegrown AI sector built around safety, competitiveness and reduced dependence on foreign suppliers. The Irish government presented the Dublin Declaration, outlining political commitments to infrastructure investment and financial backing for European AI companies. It also suggests that firms relying on non-EU cloud and computing services could face additional compliance pressures.

The bloc remains well behind its main competitors in computing capacity and frontier-model development. It hosts 5% of the world’s AI computing capacity, compared with around 75% for the US. France’s Mistral is among the few European companies approaching the leading AI labs, while the EU also trails leading US and Taiwanese producers in advanced chips.

European Commission executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen announced that enforcement under the AI Act had begun, with requests for security and safety information from advanced model providers. Leaders emphasized trustworthy, human-centered development, but protesters said environmental costs, potential job losses and workers’ ability to refuse AI tools received insufficient attention.

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson questioned whether Brussels could regulate the technology without slowing innovation. His airline recently struck a deal to use Google’s cloud data system and Gemini Enterprise, illustrating the continued appeal of US suppliers despite Europe’s push for greater technological independence.