New StepUp Startups report: Scaling Europe’s open-source AI landscape
A new report from the StepUp Startups project, titled "The European Open-Source AI Landscape," highlights the potential of open-source AI to boost European competitiveness and strengthen digital sovereignty. The report examines Europe's current standing in the global AI landscape, emphasizing how the widespread adoption of open-source AI can close the "use gap" and foster innovation. This is a crucial step towards achieving a more sovereign and competitive AI ecosystem within the EU. Open-source AI, characterized by its openly available models, tools, and datasets, is already prevalent in the AI tech stack, with over half of developers regularly utilizing open models. The report notes a significant increase in publicly released AI models since 2022. This open approach allows developers, including startups and established companies, to develop and deploy AI without being tied to proprietary systems. The move towards open-source AI has far-reaching implications, with open models rapidly approaching the performance of proprietary systems. The report indicates that only 14% of EU firms were using AI in 2024. Therefore, promoting open-source AI is crucial for increasing adoption across European businesses. The EU's Apply AI strategy, launched in October 2025, further aims to encourage broader AI use, which can lead to cost-effective, reusable tools that align with EU values. Europe's strengths lie in its top-tier research, collaboration between academia and industry, and major contributions to foundational AI tools. This existing foundation allows the EU to focus on developing open, trusted, multilingual, and sector-specific AI. This will require continued investment and access to computing resources, like the EU-funded AI Factories and expanded EuroHPC supercomputers.
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