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Ischinger Warns of Europe´s AI Dependence

Jul 11
1 min read
Fabian Vetter

Ischinger Warns of US Export bands on AI and Calls for Greater European Technological Resilience

11.07.2026 

 

How can Europe hold its own in the AI race between the United States and China?


In an interview with Handelsblatt in Palo Alto, Ambassador Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference and Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Agora Strategy Group AG, warns that Europe must not end up sidelined between the two great powers. He describes the US export ban on Anthropic’s AI model Claude Mythos 5 in June, which also affected Europeans, as a moment of shock. What Washington has done once; it can do again. Europe therefore needs the most unrestricted possible access to key technologies across the entire Western sphere. If necessary, Europeans should signal to Washington that they could turn to Chinese alternatives, though he stresses this would be far from desirable. Technological change should also be shaped on a transatlantic basis. Rather than “autonomy,” Ischinger prefers the term “resilience”: 450 million Europeans should not depend on Elon Musk’s goodwill for satellite communications. He views the US “Pax Silica” initiative to secure AI supply chains as an opportunity Europe should not reject. He also warns of a revolution in military capabilities driven by AI-coordinated drone swarms and calls for common international rules. To strengthen European innovation, he advocates completing the Capital Markets Union rather than relying on multi-billion-euro subsidies, as in the failed Intel project.


 
 
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