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

For a European company, the choice isn’t about model quality — it’s about 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 are excellent products built on US infrastructure — a different answer to a different question.

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: US infrastructure, a vendor subject to the CLOUD Act, at $30 per user per month as an add-on to an E3 or E5 license.
• ChatGPT Enterprise processes in the United States and publishes no pricing sheet: 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, not a French one — hosted on its own infrastructure in Germany, starting at €29.91 per user per month billed annually.

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 — that’s not a criticism, just not what it is. 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.

Cost matters too: Copilot is billed at $30 per user per month on top of an E3 or E5 license, often over $50 per seat all-in. And the tool stays reactive — it answers when asked and resets at the next session, which we cover in why Copilot forgets context.

What About ChatGPT Enterprise?

Same underlying problem, less pricing transparency: US infrastructure, a US-law vendor, no public pricing sheet. Budget gets negotiated before it can even be modeled.

The functional obstacle is bigger: ChatGPT lives in a separate app. It doesn’t know your Microsoft 365 tenant, your CRM, or your HR system — an excellent model that knows nothing about your company. 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.

Criterion	amaiko liberté	Microsoft 365 Copilot	ChatGPT Enterprise
Jurisdiction of processing	EU	Microsoft infrastructure, US vendor	US infrastructure
Model provenance	Mistral only	OpenAI via Microsoft	OpenAI
Hosting	Own infrastructure in Germany	Microsoft cloud	Vendor’s cloud
Corporate memory	Persistent	Per session	Per session
Native in Microsoft Teams	Yes	Yes	No, separate app
Price	€44.87/user/month	$30/user/month + E3/E5 license	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. It’s the one case where the premium over the standard plan justifies itself.
• GDPR is enough, with no requirement on model provenance: the standard amaiko plan at €29.91 per user per month billed annually keeps German hosting and adds image and video generation.
• You’re fully committed to the Microsoft stack and jurisdiction isn’t in the requirements: Copilot is consistent. Check whether per-session memory and the blind spot on your non-Microsoft systems matter to you — 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?

It can be made contractually compliant, but processing still runs on US infrastructure, and no pricing sheet is published. The practical obstacle is functional: ChatGPT lives in a separate app and has no access to your Microsoft 365 tenant, your CRM, or your HR system.

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?

amaiko liberté (€44.87/user/month) runs exclusively on Mistral’s models, every token processed in the EU, for organizations with strict data requirements. The standard amaiko plan (€29.91/user/month billed annually) keeps German hosting and adds image and video 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 — which is why we measure 57% faster onboarding for new hires and 35% less time spent searching in production.