Swiss startup raises $100M as Anthropic ban fuels sovereign AI push

Swiss startup Prem AI is raising $100 million at a valuation above $500 million, pitching private AI ownership to hedge funds and law firms, according to Bloomberg.bloomberg
The U.S. Commerce Department ordered Anthropic to disable its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models on June 12 over national security concerns, forcing a worldwide shutdown.fortune+1
The ban has sparked sovereign AI debates in Europe and India, with cybersecurity experts calling the move counterproductive in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.cybersecuritydive+1

The U.S. Commerce Department's abrupt order forcing Anthropic to disable its most powerful AI models has set off a global reckoning over dependence on American AI infrastructure, with governments and startups from Europe to India scrambling to articulate alternatives.

The Shutdown

On June 12, Anthropic received an export-control directive from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ordering it to suspend all access to its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models — launched just three days earlier — for any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States. Unable to filter users by nationality in real time, the company disabled both models for everyone worldwide that same evening. The directive cited national-security concerns, specifically a jailbreaking method that could circumvent Fable 5's safety guardrails. Anthropic has called it a "misunderstanding" and is working to restore access, but the models remain offline as the dispute moves through the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.adaptiveis+4

Europe's "Kill Switch" Fear Becomes Real

The incident landed in the middle of an already-charged debate. On June 3, the European Commission had unveiled a tech sovereignty package aimed at reducing reliance on U.S. providers. Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said at the time that the Commission wants to ensure "no cloud providers handling critical operations possess a kill switch". OVHcloud and partners were selected in April to build a sovereign cloud for European institutions, and analysts have warned that any economy built atop U.S.-controlled AI faces precisely the scenario Anthropic's shutdown demonstrated.corporate.ovhcloud+2

Swiss startup Prem AI is capitalizing on the moment. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Prem is raising a $100 million Series A at a valuation above $500 million, with a pitch built around private AI ownership. "Enterprise intelligence must be owned, not rented," founder Simone Giacomelli said.thenextweb+1

India and the Open-Source Pivot

In India, the suspension reignited calls for sovereign AI capacity. TechCrunch reported that Indian policymakers are debating proposals including a $5 billion annual fund and a pivot toward open-source models that cannot be disabled by a foreign government's directive. Canada, too, has raised alarms about foreign-controlled AI dependency.thenextweb+2

Dozens of cybersecurity experts wrote to Lutnick and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross calling the action counterproductive. "It has taken the best models away from defenders, created market uncertainty, and risked America's AI leadership without any real risk to justify it," the letter stated. Anthropic maintains that applying the same standard across the industry "would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers".artificialintelligence-news+1

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