Europe Abandons US Tech, Ramps Up AI Sovereignty with Open-Source Push

European countries are intensifying efforts to achieve technological sovereignty and break free from dependence on the United States. This priority has been formalised through a new regulation called ‘Cloud and AI Development’ (CADA). Under CADA, European nations are committed to developing domestic industries, with plans to replace technology and chips made by US giants with those manufactured in Europe. As part of this push, Portugal launched its first open-source artificial intelligence model on Wednesday. The move follows similar initiatives in other European countries, including France and Germany, where governments are backing local AI firms like Mistral AI and Aleph Alpha to provide alternatives to models developed by US companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Rather than being intended for direct use by the general public, the large language model (LLM) is designed as a foundational technology that can be utilised by public institutions, companies, universities, and researchers to build customised AI applications. The Portuguese model, named ‘Amalia’, was developed by a consortium of Portuguese universities and research institutions, supported by the government and €5.5 million (Rp113 billion) in European Union recovery funds. “Europe’s strategic autonomy today depends heavily on AI. This model will allow us to face the coming decades with greater sovereignty and less dependence [on foreign technology],” Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said at the launch event. He stated that Amalia would help boost productivity in both the private and public sectors, including banking, insurance, and telecommunications, while ensuring robust security. “We will continue to invest heavily in this project,” he added. The Amalia LLM, along with its training dataset and source code, has been released under an open-source licence. Its initial applications include a virtual guide for Portuguese museums, a decision-support tool for the Portuguese Navy, an AI teaching assistant for lesson planning, and a digital assistant to help the government deliver public services to citizens. Amalia also leverages Portugal’s investments in high-performance computing, including access to the Deucalion and MareNostrum 5 supercomputers, providing the computational power necessary to train and run large-scale AI models.