Sovereign AI, Copilot or ChatGPT Enterprise: Which Should European Companies Choose?

For a European company, the choice comes down to the jurisdiction where your data gets processed, and if sovereignty is a contractual requirement, amaiko liberté is the answer: every model from Mistral, every token processed in the EU, with the assistant living directly inside Microsoft Teams. Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise come from US vendors, which leaves the jurisdiction question open for both.

What you’ll take away from this article:

• Sovereignty breaks down into four layers — jurisdiction of processing, model provenance, hosting, and contract law. Most tools fail at least one.
• Microsoft Copilot isn’t sovereign in the European sense: a US vendor subject to the CLOUD Act, sold as an add-on (€18.20 per user per month for Copilot Business) to an eligible Microsoft 365 plan.
• ChatGPT Enterprise comes from a US vendor. OpenAI offers EU processing to new Enterprise customers and doesn’t publish the Enterprise price: budgeting starts with a sales call.
• A French model doesn’t make an assistant sovereign: it’s missing the integration and memory layer.
• amaiko is a German company, hosted on its own infrastructure in Germany, at €41.58 per user per month billed annually, the same price for amaiko and amaiko liberté.

What Does Sovereign AI Actually Mean?

“Sovereign AI” has become a marketing line. Four questions make it verifiable:

1. Where does processing happen? Not where data sits at rest — where tokens are actually computed. This is the question most product pages dodge.
2. Where do the models come from? A US model served from a European data center still answers to its vendor’s terms.
3. Who operates the hosting? A vendor renting capacity from a US hyperscaler inherits that hyperscaler’s legal regime.
4. What law governs the contract? A European-law contract with a European vendor can’t be reached by an extraterritorial order the same way.

The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) adds documentation and governance requirements, but it doesn’t settle the jurisdiction question. That remains an architecture decision.

Is Microsoft Copilot Sovereign AI?

No. Copilot runs on Microsoft infrastructure, a US company subject to the CLOUD Act, which lets a US authority compel data held by a US provider wherever it physically sits. European processing commitments have strengthened, but the vendor’s jurisdiction doesn’t change. Microsoft’s own EU Data Boundary documentation names limited circumstances in which data continues to leave it. Flex routing, on by default for eligible tenants created after 25 March 2026, lets Copilot’s AI processing move to the US, Canada or Australia at peak load. And Anthropic’s Claude models, part of the model choice Copilot advertises, “are currently excluded from the EU Data Boundary”, according to Microsoft’s admin documentation.

Cost matters too: Copilot Business, for up to 300 users, costs €18.20 per user per month billed annually ($21 in the US), and Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise plans €26.00, or $30. Both are add-ons to an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, from Business Basic up. Copilot’s memory is in preview, and Microsoft stores it in each user’s own Exchange mailbox: it remembers for one person. We look at what that means for company knowledge in our analysis of Copilot’s memory.

What About ChatGPT Enterprise?

Same underlying problem, less pricing transparency: a US-law vendor, EU storage and AI processing offered to new Enterprise customers, and a pricing page that sends you to sales for the Enterprise price. Budget gets negotiated before it can even be modeled.

The functional obstacle is bigger: ChatGPT lives in a separate app. It reaches your Microsoft 365 tenant and other systems through connectors, from inside its own window, and your team has to carry every result back to where it works. Details are on the ChatGPT Enterprise alternatives page.

Does a French Model Make an AI Sovereign?

This is the most common confusion. Mistral is a French company and its models are excellent: we use them. But a model isn’t an assistant.

A model answers a prompt. An enterprise assistant needs to know who you are, what got decided last week, and where documents live. That layer — integration, permissions, persistent memory — is what produces the value, and the model doesn’t provide it. Choosing a sovereign model without an orchestration layer settles the legal question and leaves the usage problem untouched.

Book a demo to see the difference on your own systems.

Where Does amaiko Stand?

Let’s be precise, because the query that often lands here is “French sovereign AI”: amaiko is a German company, not a French one. We don’t claim French sovereignty. What we offer is European sovereignty, verifiable across all four layers above:

• Processing in the EU. amaiko runs its own infrastructure in Germany. Data doesn’t sit in the Microsoft cloud — it’s separate infrastructure, operated by us.
• Model provenance. amaiko liberté runs exclusively on Mistral’s models, every token processed in the EU. Sovereignty is a permanent choice, not a checkbox.
• Applicable law. German vendor, European-law contract.
• Compliance. amaiko is GDPR-compliant, aligned with ISO 42001 — details are on the security page.

Outside the EU, Switzerland arrives at the same result by a different legal route, and Copilot’s flex routing, on by default for eligible tenants created after 25 March 2026, applies to EFTA tenants too. We’ve written up separately what applies to Swiss SMEs running an AI assistant in Teams.

Criterion	amaiko liberté	Microsoft 365 Copilot	ChatGPT Enterprise
Jurisdiction of processing	EU	EU Data Boundary with exceptions and flex routing; US vendor	US vendor; EU AI processing for new Enterprise customers
Model provenance	Mistral only	OpenAI models and Anthropic’s Claude, which is excluded from the EU Data Boundary	OpenAI
Hosting	Own infrastructure in Germany	Microsoft cloud	Vendor’s cloud
Corporate memory	Company knowledge consolidated every night, kept when someone leaves	Per user, in their mailbox (preview)	Per user; per agent for workspace agents
Native in Microsoft Teams	Yes	Yes	No, separate app
Price	€41.58/user/month billed annually	Copilot Business €18.20/user/month + eligible Microsoft 365 plan	Quote-only, unpublished

How Should You Choose?

Three scenarios cover most decisions:

• Sovereignty is a contractual requirement (public sector, healthcare, defense, sensitive data): pick amaiko liberté. Every model comes from Mistral and every token is processed in the EU, at the same price as the standard plan.
• GDPR is enough, with no requirement on model provenance: the standard amaiko plan, at the same €41.58 per user per month billed annually, keeps German hosting and adds image generation.
• You’re comparing against Copilot inside the Microsoft stack: before you sign, ask whether flex routing and Anthropic’s models are switched on in your tenant, what Copilot Cowork, billed by usage, will cost for daily briefings, and what happens to a leaver’s Copilot memory, since it lives in their mailbox. That’s the subject of Copilot versus a real assistant.

Sovereignty shouldn’t cost you features. If your assistant is compliant but nobody uses it, you’ve bought a compliance line item, not a tool.

Want to check jurisdiction, models, and integration against your own environment? Book a live demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does sovereign AI actually mean?

AI whose processing takes place in a given jurisdiction, whose models come from vendors under that jurisdiction, whose hosting is operated under that law, and whose contract is governed by it. All four layers must hold together: a European model served from US infrastructure isn’t sovereign, and European hosting running a US model isn’t either.

Is Microsoft Copilot sovereign AI?

No. Copilot runs on Microsoft infrastructure, and its vendor is a US company subject to the CLOUD Act, which lets a US authority compel data held by a US provider regardless of where it physically sits. European processing commitments reduce exposure but don’t change the vendor’s jurisdiction.

Is ChatGPT Enterprise suitable for a European company subject to GDPR?

The vendor stays a US company. OpenAI offers EU storage and AI processing to new Enterprise customers and doesn’t publish the Enterprise price: its pricing page sends you to sales. The practical obstacle is functional: ChatGPT lives in a separate app and reaches your Microsoft 365 tenant and other systems through connectors, from inside its own window.

Is amaiko a French AI company?

No. amaiko is a German company, developed and hosted in Germany. We don’t claim French sovereignty. amaiko liberté runs exclusively on Mistral’s models — a French company — with every token processed in the EU, which answers a European sovereignty requirement, not a national one.

What’s the difference between amaiko and amaiko liberté?

Both cost the same: €41.58 per user per month billed annually. amaiko liberté runs exclusively on Mistral’s models, every token processed in the EU, for organizations with strict data requirements. The standard amaiko plan keeps German hosting and adds image generation. Both are native inside Microsoft Teams.

Does this require rolling out a new tool to employees?

No. amaiko works inside Microsoft Teams and Outlook, where work already happens. There’s no separate app, no new portal, no upfront training. Teams using amaiko spend 35% less time searching, and new hires get up to speed up to 57% faster.