As the United States imposed what amounts to an export ban on Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence (AI) models, calls have emerged in Europe to lure Anthropic to the continent. The concern is that being cut off from access to cutting-edge AI could leave Europe behind in a rapidly changing AI market.
"Europe Must Not Be Cut Off From Innovative Technology"
Austria has proposed that the European Union (EU) consider ways to attract Anthropic to the bloc, according to Reuters on Thursday. The move responds to the United States blocking foreign access to Anthropic's latest AI models.
Alexander Pröll, Austria's State Secretary for Digitalization, stressed in an open letter to Henna Virkkunen, the EU's commissioner for technology, the importance of Europe not being cut off from key innovative technologies. "Let us jointly explore options for Anthropic's strategic establishment and engagement within the EU, which offers legal certainty, market access, capital and a value system aligned with this company," Pröll wrote.
He did not mention specific measures and acknowledged the practical difficulties. "Whether this is easy is not the point," Pröll wrote. "The point is whether we Europeans are ready to be the architects of our own technological future, or whether we will remain entities that merely execute decisions made elsewhere."
Earlier, the Trump administration on the 12th issued export control guidelines ordering a complete block on all foreign nationals' access to "Mythos 5" and "Fable 5," citing national security concerns. As a result, Anthropic, which lacked the capability to verify users' nationality, had no choice but to block all users' access to the two models.
In a confidential letter that the US Commerce Department sent to Anthropic on the 26th, it notified the company that only certain firms within the United States could use Anthropic's AI model "Claude Mythos 5" (Mythos 5), reopening access to Mythos 5 for some 100 US companies and institutions. However, the US government added that the list of authorized companies could change at any time.
The US government's control measures targeting cutting-edge AI services are becoming visible at companies other than Anthropic. OpenAI recently unveiled its next-generation AI model "GPT-5.6." However, unlike in the past when products were made available to everyone, it decided to provide the model first only to certain institutions designated by the US government.
"If We Keep Relying on US AI"...EU Invests in Tech Self-Reliance
As advanced technologies such as AI move beyond a single industry to become linked to national competitiveness and security, countries around the world are pursuing self-reliance in their technology ecosystems.
The European Commission also announced on the 3rd a series of measures to strengthen technological sovereignty and encourage the use of European-made products instead of foreign ones. At the core is the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA). It aims to promote data center construction within Europe and increase data center capacity to three times the current level within the next five to seven years. It also includes a plan to provide priority grid access and network fee reductions to data centers that use European-made chips and improve energy efficiency.
The EU package also includes a "Chips Act 2.0" aimed at increasing Europe's share of semiconductor production. The EU's share of global semiconductor production is currently less than 10 percent, with a goal of doubling it by 2030.
The technology sovereignty package also includes a strategy to encourage the adoption of EU-made open-source software and a roadmap to ensure that new data centers and AI factories are sustainably integrated into the EU power grid. To this end, the EU plans to establish minimum energy efficiency standards for data centers.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for technological sovereignty, said at a press briefing at the time, apparently with the United States in mind: "We don't want a situation where someone holds a so-called 'kill switch' over our services."
She acknowledged, however, that building alternatives to foreign technology would be a long-term and difficult task. "Since 80 percent of our technology comes from outside Europe, it is impossible to build capabilities in this field in a short period," she said, predicting that visible results would not appear until 2030 at the earliest.
The proposals unveiled that day must go through consultations within EU member states and the European Parliament over the coming months before final passage.
