EU seeks AI independence as Austria proposes luring Anthropic to Europe

Austria’s State Secretary for Digitalization, Alexander Pröll, is calling on the European Commission to explore bringing Anthropic to Europe. He’s responding to the U.S.

Austria’s State Secretary for Digitalization, Alexander Pröll, now wants to lure Anthropic to the EU. Meanwhile, China looms as a supposed alternative. The U.S. recently blocked or delayed access to two of its most advanced AI models for foreign nationals, the latest from OpenAI and Anthropic. For Europe, the takeaway is stark. Access to top-tier AI now hinges on a handful of policymakers in Washington, creating a dependency that could prove dangerous. “Overnight, the world’s largest single market—our EU single market with 450 million people—was cut off from cutting-edge innovation,” writes Austrian State Secretary for Digitalization Alexander Pröll (ÖVP) in a letter to EU Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen, seen by the Austrian Kronen Zeitung.Ad In a LinkedIn post, he lays out his reasoning. “A technology that you don’t produce yourself and can only use with permission is not a tool. It is a dependency.” Europe should attract Anthropic by offering legal certainty, market access, and capital, all grounded in European values.AdDEC_D_Incontent-1 Why Anthropic specifically? Pröll points to the company’s philosophy. “Anthropic is a company that views the ethical use of AI not as a marketing ploy, but as a core conviction. One that prioritizes safety over speed,” Pröll writes in the letter, according to the Kronen Zeitung. “This company would not be constrained in Europe; it would be set free.” The letter only calls for a review, and it’s unlikely the Commission will act on it. The initiative isn’t realistic. It reads more like an act of desperation from an EU whose dependency built up over 20 years of digital policy failures, not just the last five.Ad Even if the option existed, Anthropic is unlikely to bite given Trump’s retaliatory posture.