Open-weight Chinese AI models gain foothold in Europe despite Brussels’ trepidation

European businesses are increasingly adopting open-weight Chinese AI models, which can offer greater operational sovereignty than proprietary US services when run on local servers, according to Volker Pfirsching, a Munich-based partner at Arthur D. Little. Pfirsching said that a Chinese-developed open-weight model operated on European infrastructure may provide more control, as data remains under the company's oversight, and that sovereignty should not be equated with the supplier's nationality. However, adopting such models could introduce new supply-chain dependencies, complicating Brussels' push for technological self-reliance.

Open-weight Chinese AI models gain foothold in Europe despite Brussels’ trepidation Chinese models will be ‘significant’ for European firms, as their ‘performance and efficiency are increasingly competitive’, analyst says Ben Jiang /author/ben-jiang in Beijing European businesses are increasingly weighing whether cheap but capable Chinese artificial intelligence systems represent a new threat to the continent’s technological sovereignty or a practical tool to strengthen it. While using Chinese technology might seem counterintuitive to Europe’s goals, running open-weight Chinese models on local servers can actually give firms greater operational control than relying on proprietary US services, according to a Germany-based consultant. “A Chinese-developed open-weight model operated on European infrastructure, with data remaining under the company’s control, may in some respects offer greater operational sovereignty than consuming a proprietary foreign model that can be changed, repriced or withdrawn remotely,” said Volker Pfirsching, a Munich-based partner at management consultancy Arthur D. Little, in an interview this week. “Sovereignty should not simply be equated with the nationality of the supplier,” Pfirsching said. Because many Chinese models are open-weight – allowing developers to download, modify, and host the underlying code locally – they give enterprises flexibility over where and how the technology is deployed. That control lies at the heart of Europe’s AI debate. Hosting open-weight systems locally keeps sensitive data on European soil and under corporate oversight. However, adopting Chinese foundation models risks introducing fresh supply-chain dependencies, complicating Brussels’ broader push for technological self-reliance.