Exploring resilient infrastructure in an era of geopolitical tension — why true digital sovereignty requires distributed, not centralized, data centers
Nations are investing hundreds of billions of euros into so-called "digital sovereignty," but the prevailing strategy creates critical vulnerabilities:
Keeping data within borders does not translate into technical independence — control planes, firmware, and chips still come from foreign providers.
Concentrating compute and storage in a few static facilities creates "digital fortresses" — mapped, visible, and tempting single points of failure for adversaries.
Recent conflicts illustrate that data centers are legitimate military targets. Cyber and kinetic attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure forced a "digital evacuation" to the cloud.
Kinetic strikes, grid disruptions, and natural disasters can cripple centralized AI infrastructure. Survivability demands a more distributed fabric.
We believe true AI sovereignty is impossible while national clouds remain monolithic. To withstand war, blackouts, and supply-chain shocks, a sovereign AI must behave like a swarm rather than a fortress.
These ideas build on lessons from Ukraine and emerging decentralized projects: missiles cannot destroy a cloud spread across millions of devices.
Our full slide presentation outlines the vision and supporting research.
Download PDF →Visual summaries contrasting the flawed quest for AI sovereignty with a resilient decentralized model.
Horizontal VerticalWe invite researchers, technologists, policymakers, and creators to brainstorm, challenge, and co-design this vision. Choose your preferred AI assistant below to read the background conversation in various languages and contribute your thoughts: