The Eclipse Foundation announced the formation of the Sovereign AI Foundation, a vendor-neutral initiative that will help member organisations understand their AI dependencies, evaluate open source alternatives, and make more informed decisions about the technologies on which they rely.
As AI moves from experimentation into critical operations and decision-making, control over the underlying technology is becoming a strategic business concern. Many organisations rely on models, platforms, and services they cannot fully inspect, adapt, or govern. That dependence can limit their ability to control where data is processed, choose which technologies to use, or change direction as costs, requirements, and provider terms evolve.
“AI sovereignty is about preserving meaningful choice and control over the systems on which organisations depend,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “The Eclipse Foundation already hosts open source technologies that give organisations practical alternatives across the AI stack. The Sovereign AI Foundation will connect those projects with real industry requirements while giving members a neutral forum to compare experience, identify shared priorities, and accelerate adoption.”
AI sovereignty does not mean isolation, complete self-sufficiency, or rejecting proprietary technology. It means retaining the ability to understand, choose, adapt, and govern critical AI systems while preserving viable alternatives and the freedom to change direction.
Open source is central to achieving that goal. It can provide greater visibility into technology dependencies, more flexibility to adapt systems, and more choice in how AI is deployed. Combined with portability, operational expertise, and vendor-neutral governance, open technologies can help organisations reduce unnecessary dependency and retain greater control over their AI systems.
The Eclipse Foundation advances these goals in two complementary ways. Independently governed open source projects develop and maintain the technologies. The Sovereign AI Foundation brings member organisations together to identify shared requirements, evaluate relevant projects, contribute experience and expertise, and support adoption and community growth.
The initiative launches with 17 participating organisations spanning technology, industry, research, and the open source community: CEA LIST, EclipseSource, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Ericsson, Eurotech, Infosys, Kentyou, KU Leuven, Open Elements, Red Hat, Renesas Electronics, Robert Bosch, Thales, The IO Foundation, TypeFox, the University of York, and Vector Informatik. Additional organisations are in the process of joining, and all Eclipse Foundation member organisations are invited to participate.
Connecting industry needs with open source AI projects
The Sovereign AI Foundation will connect member priorities and real-world use cases with relevant projects across the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem. Members will be able to identify and evaluate technologies that address their needs, bring operational requirements and feedback to project communities, contribute expertise, and help drive adoption.
Relevant projects include Eclipse Theia and Theia AI for AI-enabled developer tools; Eclipse Enclave for running AI coding agents in isolated, policy-controlled environments; Eclipse PanEval for evaluating model capability, safety, and cybersecurity; and Eclipse LMOS for developing and managing multi-agent systems. The Open VSX Registry provides vendor-neutral extension infrastructure for open source and AI-enabled development tools, with downloads approaching one billion per month. The Eclipse Foundation is also exploring a broader AI Registry for emerging components such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, agent skills, and plugins.
Each project retains independent governance and control over its technical roadmap. By connecting organisations deploying AI with the communities building these technologies, the Sovereign AI Foundation will support a modular ecosystem in which projects can address different requirements, evolve independently, and work together where appropriate.
From shared experience to practical guidance
The Sovereign AI Foundation focuses on six areas:
- Mapping real-world needs and use cases: Building a shared view of how members are deploying, evaluating, and piloting open source AI.
- Assessing technologies and dependencies: Examining developments across models, evaluation frameworks, infrastructure, and agentic systems, as well as the dependencies they can create.
- Evaluating relevant open source projects: Assessing how projects align with member requirements and identifying opportunities for adoption, contribution, and collaboration.
- Sharing experience and identifying common requirements: Comparing lessons from real-world deployments and identifying needs that members and project communities can address together.
- Developing practical resources: Producing whitepapers, blueprints, landscape analyses, and reference materials that support better-informed AI decisions.
- Translating research into action: Turning findings from Eclipse Foundation research initiatives, including EU-funded projects, into insights that members can apply.
The Sovereign AI Foundation will focus on knowledge sharing, technology assessment, project evaluation, ecosystem coordination, and practical guidance. It will not develop software or specifications. Technical development will continue within Eclipse Foundation-governed projects, creating a feedback loop between the organisations deploying AI and the communities building the technologies they need.
Supporting a broader open AI ecosystem
The Sovereign AI Foundation is the member forum within the Eclipse Foundation’s broader AI ecosystem. Beyond the projects named above, the Eclipse Foundation’s AI project portfolio spans deep learning, data and numerical computing, simulation, observability, cloud infrastructure, edge applications, and other areas. These projects benefit from established governance and shared legal, operational, security, and community support.
The Eclipse Foundation also supports practical skills development through its AI Coding Workshop series, which helps developers and engineering teams apply disciplined, cross-tool approaches to AI-assisted software development. Visit the workshop website for the latest schedule and registration information.
Together, these activities connect open technologies with the knowledge, experience, and practical skills organisations need to adopt and develop AI while preserving choice and control.
Eclipse Foundation member organisations are invited to join the Sovereign AI Foundation, share their requirements and experience, identify common priorities, and help build its first practical resources. Other organisations can explore Eclipse Foundation membership and participation at sovereign-ai-foundation.org.
