Volker Pfirsching argues that Chinese artificial intelligence models offer European firms significant operational control and technological sovereignty.

Volker Pfirsching, a Munich-based partner at management consultancy Arthur D. Little, stated this week that Chinese artificial intelligence models are becoming increasingly competitive for European firms. While many businesses are weighing whether these systems represent a threat to technological sovereignty, Pfirsching noted that running open-weight Chinese models on local servers can provide greater operational control than relying on proprietary US services. Because these models allow developers to download and host the code locally, companies can keep sensitive data on European soil under corporate oversight. Pfirsching argued that sovereignty should not be defined solely by the nationality of the supplier. However, the adoption of the user-friendly Chinese models does introduce new supply-chain dependencies, which may complicate the broader push for technological self-reliance in Europe.

Sources

• South China Morning Post
  Open-weight Chinese AI models gain foothold in Europe despite Brussels’ trepidation