> An Eclipse Foundation Industry Collaboration
AI sovereignty
starts in the open.
AI increasingly shapes critical operations and decisions, yet many organisations rely on systems they cannot fully inspect, adapt, or govern. The Sovereign AI Foundation brings members and open source communities together, combining real-world experience with technical expertise to understand those dependencies, evaluate open source alternatives, and develop practical guidance for retaining choice and control.
// Open to all eligible Eclipse Foundation member organisations.
The strategic risk of AI dependency
The choices organisations make about models, data, infrastructure, and providers can shape their costs, resilience, compliance obligations, and freedom to change direction. Many of the models, platforms, and infrastructure underpinning AI are controlled by a relatively small number of providers, making the resulting dependencies harder to understand or change.
These dependencies can narrow future options. They may limit where data is processed, which technologies can be used, whether workloads can be moved, and how organisations can respond when requirements, costs, or provider terms change.
This is why AI sovereignty matters. In practical terms, it is about preserving four essential capabilities:
Operational resilience
Maintain continuity, security, and performance when connectivity, providers, or operating conditions change.
Control over data and deployment
Determine where sensitive data is processed and how AI systems are deployed at the edge, on-premises, in the cloud, or across multiple environments.
Freedom to change course
Evaluate, combine, replace, or adapt models, infrastructure, and providers without having to rebuild entire systems.
Human oversight and accountability
Understand, explain, and challenge AI-supported decisions, particularly when they affect people, operations, or public services.
Control without isolation
AI sovereignty is an organisation’s ability to make informed choices and retain meaningful control over the AI systems on which it depends. Organisations can use technologies from many sources and collaborate across a global ecosystem while preserving control over their data, deployment choices, critical dependencies, and ability to change direction.
Open source provides the foundation
Open source makes critical technologies easier to inspect, evaluate, adapt, combine, and replace. This expands choice, supports viable alternatives, and reduces unnecessary dependency on any single provider.
Access to source code or model weights alone, however, does not guarantee sovereignty. Organisations also need portable architectures, clear licensing and provenance, operational expertise, sustainable communities, and trusted governance.
The Sovereign AI Foundation helps members understand these factors, compare available approaches, and apply them to real-world AI decisions.
How members and project communities work together
The Sovereign AI Foundation gives members a structured way to learn from one another, assess technologies and dependencies, and engage with open source communities relevant to their needs.
The Eclipse Foundation
Provides the governance, legal framework, and operational support that enable organisations and project communities to collaborate in a vendor-neutral environment.
Sovereign AI Foundation members
Bring real-world use cases, technology dependencies, and operational requirements. Members learn from one another, identify shared needs, assess available options, and develop practical guidance.
Eclipse Foundation open source projects
Develop and maintain open source AI technologies under established project governance. Members can evaluate and adopt relevant projects, contribute expertise and requirements, and participate directly in their communities.
The Sovereign AI Foundation does not govern projects or determine their technical roadmaps. Projects remain independent, while members gain a clear path to explore their technologies, share feedback, and contribute where their interests align.
> What members do
Turn collective insight into better AI decisions
Members focus on six areas that help them understand their options, learn from real-world experience, and make better-informed AI decisions:
01
Map real-world use cases
Build a shared view of how organisations are evaluating, piloting, and deploying open source AI, including common challenges and priorities.
02
Assess technologies and dependencies
Evaluate developments across models, infrastructure, agentic systems, and evaluation methods, including the dependencies, limitations, and operational risks they may introduce.
03
Evaluate relevant open source projects
Explore how projects align with member requirements and identify opportunities for adoption, contribution, and collaboration.
04
Share experience and define common requirements
Compare lessons from real-world deployments and identify requirements that members and project communities can address together.
05
Develop practical resources
Create white papers, blueprints, landscape analyses, and reference materials that help members make informed decisions.
06
Translate research into action
Turn findings from Eclipse Foundation research initiatives, including EU-funded projects, into insights members can apply.
Open technologies for greater choice and control
Members can evaluate projects across the Eclipse Foundation portfolio against their technical, operational, and strategic requirements. They can also engage directly with project communities, contribute expertise and feedback, and identify gaps and opportunities for further collaboration.
Eclipse Theia and Theia AI
Open technologies for building AI-enabled development tools and integrated development environments, with flexibility over models, integrations, and user experience.
Eclipse Enclave
Technology for running AI coding agents in isolated environments with defined security and operational policies.
Eclipse PanEval
An open platform for evaluating AI model capabilities, safety, and cybersecurity.
Eclipse LMOS
An open platform for developing and managing multi-agent systems.
Open VSX Registry
A vendor-neutral registry for extensions used by open source and AI-enabled development tools.
These projects address different layers and use cases and remain independently governed. Together with the wider Eclipse Foundation portfolio, they provide modular technologies that organisations can evaluate, combine, and adapt without committing to a single integrated platform.
A growing community shaping practical AI sovereignty
Participating organisations bring expertise from industry, technology, research, and the open source community. All eligible Eclipse Foundation member organisations are invited to contribute their experience and help shape the initiative’s priorities, assessments, and practical resources.
> Member perspectives
What brings members together
Members contribute experience from developer tools, enterprise AI, edge computing, industrial systems, and academic research. This breadth of expertise helps ground the Sovereign AI Foundation’s work in the needs of organisations building, deploying, and relying on AI.
> why the Eclipse Foundation
A proven model for open collaboration
The Eclipse Foundation already supports a growing ecosystem of AI-related projects, research efforts, industry collaborations, and community initiatives.
The Sovereign AI Foundation provides a central forum for connecting these activities, sharing knowledge across organisational and geographic boundaries, and making relevant developments easier for members to discover and apply.
AI sovereignty, participation, and how it works
What is the Sovereign AI Foundation?
The Sovereign AI Foundation is an Eclipse Foundation Industry Collaboration where member organisations compare experience, assess AI technologies and dependencies, evaluate relevant open source projects, and develop practical guidance.
What is AI sovereignty?
AI sovereignty is an organisation’s ability to make informed choices and retain meaningful control over the AI systems on which it depends. In practice, this means understanding how data is used, choosing or changing models and infrastructure, moving workloads, adapting critical components, and maintaining human accountability. Organisations can collaborate and use technologies from many sources while preserving control over the decisions that matter.
Why is open source important to AI sovereignty?
Open source makes critical technologies easier to inspect, evaluate, adapt, and replace. It also enables alternatives to systems controlled by a single provider. Source code or model weights alone, however, are not enough. Practical sovereignty also requires portable architectures, operational expertise, sustainable communities, and trusted governance.
What do members gain by participating?
Members gain access to experience from other organisations confronting similar decisions. They can compare approaches, better understand emerging technologies and dependencies, evaluate relevant projects, identify shared requirements, and help create resources they can use in their own AI strategies.
Does the Sovereign AI Foundation develop or govern open source projects?
No. The Sovereign AI Foundation helps members discover and evaluate relevant projects, share requirements and feedback, contribute expertise, and support adoption. Software development and technical decisions remain within independently governed Eclipse Foundation projects.
Is AI sovereignty only a European concern?
No. Europe provides an important policy, industrial, and institutional context, but the underlying concerns are global. Organisations everywhere must consider data control, technology dependency, provider choice, workload portability, and long-term operational flexibility.
Who can participate?
All eligible Eclipse Foundation member organisations can participate. Organisations that are not yet members can explore Eclipse Foundation membership as a path to joining.
> get involved
Help shape practical approaches to AI sovereignty
Bring your organisation’s use cases, requirements, and expertise to a community where members compare experience, assess technologies and dependencies, engage with open source projects, and develop guidance they can apply.
Already an Eclipse Foundation member?
Join the Sovereign AI Foundation to learn from peers, evaluate relevant technologies and projects, and help shape the initiative’s priorities and practical resources.
Participation is subject to applicable Eclipse Foundation membership and contributor agreement requirements.
Not yet an Eclipse Foundation member?
Explore Eclipse Foundation membership and talk with us about the best path for your organisation to participate.
Developing open source AI technology?
Contribute to an existing Eclipse Foundation project, bring your project to the Eclipse Foundation, or talk to us about a shared AI challenge that could benefit from open collaboration.
-> Explore AI projects
-> Bring your project
-> Discuss an AI collaboration
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