AI sovereignty is the capacity of a state to develop, deploy and govern artificial intelligence systems without depending on infrastructure, models or rules controlled by another state. The term entered mainstream policy vocabulary around 2023 and has since been applied to national compute programmes, domestic model development, data residency law and regulatory regimes. It is used loosely, and that looseness matters: the phrase bundles together at least four distinct claims with radically different price tags and success rates.

The same carbon fiber that stiffens a racing bicycle frame can reinforce a ballistic missile’s nose cone. The nickel superalloys machined into jet turbine blades are equally at home in the combustion chambers of cruise missiles. Dual-use materials — substances whose physical properties make them valuable in both civilian industry and military hardware — sit at the intersection of commerce, science, and national security in ways that no clean regulatory line has ever fully resolved.