Sovereign AI – World Cup of States

VivaTech is a chance for Europe to stake its claim.

• While the corporate world is rapidly adapting to AI becoming a part of daily business, many governments of the world are also getting involved, but Europe has been lagging behind.
• This is something that it is determined to correct beginning at the VivaTech conference in Paris next week.
• Sovereign AI is an emerging subsector of the AI industry and one where the size of the opportunity for the AI infrastructure providers is very likely being grossly underestimated.
• This is the first time that governments have really gotten on board with a technology trend, and most of the technology media are unused to covering governments and are looking the other way.
• I remain very sceptical of AI’s ability to become smarter than humans any time soon, but even in the absence of super intelligence, AI powered by LLMs has superpowers that AI has never had before.
• These are the ability to ingest, categorise, cross-reference, and surface vast amounts of data virtually unsupervised, as well as the ability to use natural language as the man-machine interface.
• These don’t sound like much on paper, but these superpowers have the potential to greatly improve company productivity as well as enable other opportunities such as robotics and The Metaverse.
• Governments are interested as AI offers the possibility to bring back high GDP growth to help deal with massive debt piles (USA, the West & China) or for new economies to diversify from a long history of petrochemicals (The Middle East).
• This is why we are already seeing large commitments being made by governments, government-owned companies and sovereign wealth funds to building infrastructure in their countries.
• Furthermore, the use cases for AI in national security have created a strong sense that a country needs to have a seat at the AI table or fall behind both economically and in terms of national security.
• This is where hundreds of billions of dollars of investments come from, such as the USA, China, and the Middle East, to name but a few.
• However, to date, Europe has been a laggard, which some Ministers from large EU member states will admit behind closed doors is due to an over-correction on regulation and that things need to be done a bit differently.
• I have seen no immediate change from the EU, but I think that this is coming as the recent deals announced in the Middle East are a sign of what Europe has been missing, which has spurred it into action.
• This is why VivaTech this year is going to be particularly interesting, and I am looking for a lot of meat to be put on the bones of the stated ambitions of France and Germany and the recent announcements from Sweden.
• France has already announced investments of €108bn in AI infrastructure in France with a partnership with Mistral, MGX, Nvidia and Bpifinance to build a 1.4GW campus in Paris by the end of 2028.
• Things are also beginning to move in Germany, and Sweden has just committed to a large AI installation that will use 2 Nvidia DGX SuperPODs equipped with GB300 systems.
• Nvidia clearly believes that the tide is turning for Europe as it is running a European GTC integrated with the VivaTech conference, where attendees can visit both with one badge and complete with the rockstar appearance of Jensen in a keynote.
• These are all stated intentions, and I think we will see a really big push being given by governments and infrastructure suppliers at the conference next week to move these intentions into reality.
• I am also going to be looking for AI start-ups that are based in Europe as a sign that Europe is serious about nurturing the development of an AI ecosystem in Europe and not falling behind as it has done in many other parts of the technology sector.
• This is going to be important in turning around the view (mainly caused by Apple and Meta) that Europe is not a good place to offer an AI service or create a start-up.
• If VivaTech 2025 can begin to dispel this view (much like President Xi did when he appeared with Jack Ma to support the Chinese technology private sector), then there should be more commitments and more start-ups, which, if maintained, will become self-fulfilling.
• I have been quite cautious on the outlook for AI in Europe for some time, but perhaps my visit to VivaTech 2025 will make a believer of me.