EU-hosted AI does not mean your data lives in the EU. Where the backend runs decides on CLOUD Act exposure and sovereignty. Five questions for your selection.
The question of sovereign AI is almost always asked the wrong way. It usually sounds like: "Where do the models run?" The answer feels reassuring. EU hosted, Zero Data Retention, GDPR compliant. But that is only the lock on the door. The decisive question is a different one: where does your data actually live? The model and the backend are not the same An AI application consists of two parts. The model processes individual requests. The backend stores what remains: your chat histories, your employees'' user accounts, uploaded documents, your knowledge, your organisational structure. Zero Data Retention applies only to the model. It means that an individual request is not stored after the answer is returned. That is useful, but limited. Your actual, persistent data lives in the backend. And