Davos, Sovereignty, and the Quiet Power of Europe’s Open Source AI
Logan McKee
Every January, the global economic conversation moves to a small alpine town in Switzerland. Heads of state, founders, and technologists gather in Davos to debate the future. This year, beneath the familiar headlines about geopolitical tension and economic uncertainty, another theme dominated nearly every private conversation: artificial intelligence.
For Logan McKee, President of International at OpenTeams, one message emerged clearly from the World Economic Forum: the future of AI will not be decided solely in Silicon Valley boardrooms. It is already being shaped by a global network of engineers, governments, and organizations determined to own their intelligence rather than rent it.
The Quiet Engine of Global AI: Europe
In popular narratives, Europe is often described as trailing the United States and China in the “AI race.” But that framing misses a deeper reality.
Many of the foundational technologies powering modern AI come from European engineers and research communities. Open source contributions developed across the continent form the mathematical and computational backbone of today’s global AI ecosystem.
Libraries such as NumPy and SciPy, essential tools used in everything from machine learning to scientific computing, are products of this international open source collaboration. They are not flashy consumer applications. They do not generate daily headlines. But they are the infrastructure upon which the AI boom is built.
At the World Economic Forum, this quiet influence was widely acknowledged among technical leaders and policymakers alike. Europe may not dominate AI marketing cycles, but it continues to produce world-class talent and foundational innovation. The open source ecosystem emerging from Europe already powers much of the world’s AI capability, whether organizations realize it or not.
The takeaway: the AI race is not a sprint between a few tech giants. It is a global, collaborative build, and Europe is one of its most important architects.
Sovereignty Becomes the Central Question
Across dozens of meetings with government officials and enterprise leaders from Europe, Asia, and Africa, one theme surfaced repeatedly: sovereignty.
Every leader asked some version of the same question. How can we build and use AI without surrendering ownership of our data, intellectual property, and strategic decision-making to opaque external vendors?
The concern is not theoretical. Most widely used AI tools today operate as black boxes. Organizations send proprietary data into systems they do not control, hosted in environments they cannot audit, governed by policies they did not write. The convenience is undeniable. So is the risk.
In response, governments and enterprises are beginning to seek alternatives that allow them to deploy advanced AI capabilities while maintaining full ownership of their data and models. The goal is not isolation from global innovation. It is independence within it.
This shift toward sovereign AI is not confined to any one region. It is emerging simultaneously across continents, driven by the same fundamental requirement: control over the intelligence that shapes national economies and institutional decision-making.
From Concept to Infrastructure: Intelligence Hubs
At OpenTeams, these conversations align with a vision already taking shape: the development of what the company calls Nebari Intelligence Hubs.
Nebari is a sovereign AI environment that gives organizations full ownership of their data and the ability to build custom AI capabilities on top of it. Rather than relying entirely on external, black-box systems, organizations can deploy and manage their own intelligence stack: integrating open source models, proprietary tools, and third-party technologies within a controlled environment.
This approach allows companies and governments to innovate quickly without sacrificing control. They can layer specialized AI tools onto their own data infrastructure, experiment with new capabilities, and adapt as the technology evolves, all while maintaining sovereignty over their intellectual property.
The conversations at the World Economic Forum made one thing clear: many organizations already have the foundational elements of an intelligence hub. They possess valuable data, internal engineering talent, and domain expertise. What they often lack is the cohesive architecture and strategic guidance to bring those elements together into a unified AI capability.
That is where OpenTeams increasingly finds its role. Beyond building infrastructure, the company works alongside client engineering and data science teams, augmenting staff and helping organizations clarify and execute their AI strategy. The goal is not simply to deploy tools, but to help organizations define and own their AI future.
A Global Inflection Point
The World Economic Forum did not deliver a single, dramatic announcement about AI. Instead, it revealed a convergence of priorities across industries and governments.
Europe’s contributions to open source AI are more significant than widely understood. Sovereignty has become a universal requirement rather than a niche concern. And organizations everywhere are beginning to recognize that the most valuable AI strategy may not be buying intelligence from outside, but cultivating it within.
The next phase of AI will not be defined only by model size or venture funding. It will be defined by ownership: who controls the data, the infrastructure, and the direction of intelligent systems.
From the conversations in Davos, one conclusion stands out. The future of AI will belong to those who build it, understand it, and ultimately, own it.
Logan McKee
President of International at OpenTeams