From Cloud to AI: Strategy and Governance for Sovereignty

The Deutsche Bundesbank has announced its AI strategy and adjusted cloud strategy.

• Main announcement: The Bundesbank has adopted an internal AI strategy and adjusted its cloud approach from “Public Cloud First” to “Cloud First Smart Placement”, operating an in-house AI platform TIA (in use since 2024) that runs on the Bundesbank’s own data-center servers while also using LLMs (including Mistral hosted on Microsoft Azure servers in Europe). The bank is migrating its integrated data and analytics platform (IDA) to a hyperscaler for advanced analysis tools, keeps a Private Cloud for highly sensitive workloads, and is developing exit- and multi-cloud strategies and a procurement framework that will consider EU-native sovereign cloud providers.
• Background and other facts: The Bundesbank runs its own Rechenzentrum and European payment infrastructures (TARGET), has internal teams for quantum computing, and colleagues filed a patent on quantum-safe encryption with a start-up. Internal NLP tooling (an NLP platform and the RegBot) was used to consult more than 27,000 pages of rulebooks. The bank cited that over 80% of digital infrastructure in Europe is imported from non-European providers, referenced the EU AI Act as a regulatory framework, and noted the BSI informed on risks around Anthropic’s Claude Mythos.