Digital sovereignty is the capacity of a state or region to control its digital infrastructure, data, technologies, and critical services. In artificial intelligence, it links control of models, data access, computing capacity, and regulation with economic resilience and national security. section 11.5
AI strategies express digital sovereignty through different priorities:
- China emphasizes vertically integrated control over semiconductor production, model training, cloud infrastructure, data access, and regulatory oversight. section 11.5
- The European Union emphasizes digital autonomy through public funding, regional computing platforms, transparency, documentation, risk assessment, and interoperability. section 11.5
- Other regions pursue targeted capacity, including national computing plans, local-language datasets, domestic infrastructure, and Arabic-language models. section 11.5
Different routes to autonomy
China responds to high-end chip export restrictions by accelerating domestic semiconductor design and fabrication, while Europe bets that trustworthy, auditable, and interoperable AI ecosystems can provide strategic autonomy without matching U.S. spending. section 11.5
