Henna Virkkunen pushes for trusted partners on AI chips

The European Union must rely exclusively on "very trusted partners" when securing advanced artificial intelligence chips, tech chief Henna Virkkunen warned, emphasising the need to shield critical European industries from external vulnerabilities. Speaking amid turbulence surrounding market giant Nvidia, Virkkunen stressed that proprietary European corporate know-how cannot be left exposed. "We want to really keep the business secrets in Europe," she said, signalling a stricter posture toward high-tech supply chains and sensitive industrial assets.

Advanced semiconductors form the physical backbone of the artificial intelligence boom, powering everything from manufacturing automation to data centres and proprietary software development. When global hardware supply chains encounter shocks or concentrated corporate dependencies falter, European enterprises risk losing access to essential computing capacity or exposing their underlying industrial designs. For companies across the bloc, the executive's emphasis on vetting suppliers signals tighter standards on who gets to supply the hardware running European systems.

Inside the Berlaymont, tech sovereignty has evolved from an aspirational talking point into an institutional reflex. European policymakers have spent years navigating the uncomfortable reality that while Europe designs world-class software, it remains heavily dependent on foreign chipmakers for the silicon that makes it run. The institutional instinct in Brussels is usually to draft an expansive framework, though Virkkunen's emphasis on "very trusted partners" reflects a pragmatic middle ground: building indigenous microchip fabrication takes astronomical budgets and decades, meaning the Union must decide whom it can safely rely upon in the meantime.

The European Commission must translate the call for trusted partnerships into operational policy without cutting domestic innovators off from cutting-edge global technology. As tech dossiers advance, officials will examine how to balance supply-chain resilience with strict safeguards against intellectual property theft and security vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure.