EU Courts Anthropic After US AI Restrictions

Austria has asked the European Union to consider hosting Anthropic within Europe. This proposal comes weeks after the United States restricted foreign access to Anthropic's most advanced artificial intelligence models. State Secretary for Digitalization Alexander Pröll made the suggestion in a letter to the European Commission. He believes Europe risks being cut off from frontier AI breakthroughs if it doesn't act now. Pröll's pitch includes incentives like legal certainty, fresh capital, and full access to Europe's single market. However, he offered no funding figures, timelines, or build plans. The US Commerce Department issued an export directive on June 12, barring foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 models. Anthropic subsequently pulled both models worldwide, though Claude Opus 4.8 remains online. Officials cited national security concerns. The government later eased the block for over 100 trusted US institutions, but Fable 5 remains restricted. Anthropic has strong American ties, including a $50 billion data center build in the US and a $13 billion investment from Amazon. The company also estimates US AI will need significant power by 2028, and Europe faces challenges in chip production. This news highlights the ongoing global competition and strategic importance of artificial intelligence development.