American technology companies claim that the AI technology they are developing will change the way people live, work, and entertain worldwide. However, these changes may not reach Europe for the time being.

Currently, Europeans will be unable to enjoy the latest features on Apple's iPhone. Meta has also not released its most powerful AI model in Europe, which is promoted as a tool for other businesses to develop their AI products. These moves come a year after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company might exit Europe due to an unfeasible regulatory environment.

Although OpenAI later retracted Altman's remarks, and most American AI companies continue to operate normally in the European Union, Apple and Meta's decisions not to launch key products in Europe are still a sign of long-standing tensions between Silicon Valley and the EU. The EU has established itself as a global leader in strict technology regulation and antitrust scrutiny. American companies are not typically opposed to regulation per se but rather to the so-called "unpredictability of the European regulatory environment." These companies argue that European policymakers threaten the progress of a highly promising technology, while European officials say that taking a lax approach could exacerbate the damage done by Silicon Valley's global technological dominance.

Apple announced that it would suspend the launch of Apple Intelligence, a new software suite designed for its devices, citing the Digital Markets Act, which would force Apple to make security compromises it deemed unacceptable. Meta has also postponed the release of a new version of its open-source AI model, Llama, due to concerns that training the model with data scraped from European public accounts could violate privacy laws.

Elon Musk's platform, X, has also been forced to stop collecting data from European users to train its AI model, Grok.

The direct impact of these measures on the European economy is relatively minor. These products have not yet contributed significantly to iPhone, X advertising, or Meta's virtual reality headset sales. These companies are betting on future advancements or prospects to prompt the EU to relax its regulations.

Europe's economic growth has lagged behind that of the United States for years. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has warned that excessive AI regulation "could stifle innovation" and reminded that "many companies aren't launching things there."

Refusing to launch products in Europe has some cheering at the perceived drawing of a line in the sand by Silicon Valley. "It's good to see American companies not letting European regulators bully them," said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice. Sam Lessin, an early Facebook executive, posted online: "Europe may never have American internet again."

The EU insists that its goal is to strike a balance between promoting innovation and protecting citizens' rights. Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Amsterdam, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said she was relieved by Apple's decision not to launch Apple Intelligence. She said tech companies must consider whether their AI products comply with EU antitrust rules.

For some Europeans, this issue highlights how much the continent's own innovation, competitiveness, and security interests depend on American technology. Apple and Meta's moves are "further proof that we need European AI," said Xavier Niel, a French telecom billionaire.

It seems that even the temporary absence of American AI products in Europe may help local startups gain a foothold. Still, Europe's AI industry remains at a disadvantage due to its significant lag behind the United States in terms of technology and access to capital. Some local experts are concerned that, especially Meta's withdrawal, could hinder the continent's development, as AI startups benefit from the existence of the Llama model. "There's no similar model right now," said Julien Launay, co-founder of Adaptive ML, an AI startup based in Paris and New York. He added that losing access to Llama would be "catastrophic for the EU ecosystem."

How significant this is depends on how much AI, a still nascent technology, ultimately matters to the global economy. Regardless, Apple and Meta remain exceptions. Google and OpenAI rival Anthropic initially released its latest model outside the EU before bringing it to Europe with some privacy adjustments.

Silicon Valley has threatened boycotts before. A decade ago, Google withdrew its news service from Spain over copyright disputes and cited the Digital Markets Act as a reason for excluding its travel booking feature from Europe. Meta withdrew its Facebook news service in Australia and Canada after legal disputes and has yet to restore it. Last summer, the company also refused to launch its X competitor, Threads, in the EU, but five months later, Meta said it had obtained clarifications, and Threads went live in Europe.