Europe's AI Dependence Threatens Economic Risk

The European Central Bank's President, Christine Lagarde, has warned that Europe's dependence on foreign artificial intelligence systems poses a significant risk to the economy. According to Lagarde, AI will soon control goods at borders, select tax returns for audit, manage rail traffic, monitor patients, and process bank payments.

The problem lies in the way European savings are invested. Eurozone households hold approximately €440 billion in shares of US technology companies, while European firms struggle to raise funds to develop their own AI models and infrastructure. The largest American companies in cloud computing and AI have increasingly borrowed in the European market, with bonds denominated in euros reaching around €40 billion as of August 2026.

Amazon and Alphabet were among the top bond issuers in the Eurozone market up to that date. Amazon's €14.5 billion bond sale in March was the largest single corporate issue in the history of the euro-denominated bond market.