Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai urges Europe to build its own open-source AI

Alibaba Group chairman Joe Tsai has some advice for Europe: stop renting your AI future from someone else.

Speaking at the Wave by Vento tech conference in Turin, Italy, on October 7, 2026, Tsai argued that open-source artificial intelligence is the continent’s best path to independence from American and Chinese technology. He also said Europe should build its own computing infrastructure, on its own soil, to make that happen.

What Tsai actually said

Tsai’s core argument was about risk. In his framing, depending on foreign technology, specifically from the US and China, leaves Europe exposed. His proposed fix was not to pick a side. He said open-source initiatives could give Europe a fair route to self-sufficiency.

He called on Europe to expand its data center capacity for AI on European soil. Owning the model means little if the computers running it sit under another jurisdiction.

Tsai also made a pointed claim about talent. He asserted that between 20% and 30% of employees at leading US AI labs are European, describing this European research talent as underutilized at home.

He paired that with another asset he said Europe is sitting on: substantial industrial data. Europe’s factories, logistics networks, and manufacturers generate the kind of specialized information that could help train AI tools tailored to local needs.

Why Alibaba has skin in this game

Tsai’s remarks line up neatly with Alibaba’s strategy around Qwen, its family of AI models. Alibaba has positioned Qwen as an accessible alternative in a market often defined by closed, proprietary systems.

Hugging Face, the popular platform for sharing AI models, reported a total of 151,448 derivative works built from Alibaba’s Qwen models. A derivative work here means developers took a Qwen model and modified it for their own purposes.

If Europe builds its own AI on open foundations, some of those foundations could very well carry the Qwen name. Independence from Chinese technology, it turns out, can still involve Chinese code, just code Europe controls and runs itself.

The digital sovereignty debate

Tsai’s comments land in the middle of an ongoing European conversation about digital sovereignty. The term refers to a region’s ability to control its own technology, data, and digital infrastructure rather than depending on outside powers. At the June 2026 VivaTech conference in Paris, Tsai cautioned against over-reliance on closed-source models available from U.S. entities, instead promoting Alibaba’s Qwen model family as a viable alternative that can be adapted for local infrastructures.