OpenAI backs EU code, eyes infrastructure push across Europe

OpenAI announced its intention to sign the EU’s Code of Practice for General Purpose AI, pending a formal adequacy assessment by the AI Board. The move signals a strategic bet that compliance can coexist with commercial expansion, as the company simultaneously kicks off its ‘OpenAI for Countries European Rollout’ to build AI infrastructure across the continent. The company frames the code not merely as a regulatory hurdle but as a door opener for the EU’s AI Continent Action Plan, positioning its technology as essential for millions of European users. OpenAI rattled off a list of in-market traction points to underscore its existing footprint, citing partnerships with French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi on drug discovery, research collaborations with institutions like Science Po and the Max Planck Society, and classroom deployments from Estonia’s secondary schools to France’s ESCP Business School. European startups including Parloa and Pigment also got a nod as evidence of a growing ecosystem built on OpenAI’s platform.

The blog post carries an unmistakable rhetorical pivot: Europe has spent too long in the regulatory limelight. OpenAI argues it’s time to ‘flip the script’ and let innovators build. The language frames AI as a nation-building technology akin to electricity, contrasting it with what the company describes as extractive digital-era technologies that pulled value out of Europe. The core pitch is that AI is inherently productive and, if broadly available, expands the economic pie rather than just slicing it differently.

That argument comes with a policy wishlist. OpenAI pushes for simplified, streamlined compliance under the Code and the AI Act’s risk-based framework, particularly for homegrown startups and smaller businesses it anoints as future leaders. The company says it has advocated for ‘greater simplification and harmonization’ and will continue amplifying the concerns of next-generation companies. It also urges the EU to assess how its regulatory settings might affect AI adoption and the availability of raw materials like energy and training data, pointing to a ‘long-standing productivity gap’ with the U.S. as evidence that the stakes are real.

The infrastructure campaign launching alongside the Code commitment is designed to turn potential into progress. OpenAI wants the Code and the Action Plan to drive development of European AI infrastructure and provide the long-term certainty needed to unlock capital investment. It’s a full-spectrum push: data centers, workforce skills, talent pipelines, and startup support. Whether European regulators will see this as a constructive partner stepping up or an American company trying to shape the rules to its advantage remains the open question hanging over the entire announcement.