Eclipse wants companies to be free to switch AI providers. Today, doing so can mean a costly rebuild.

The Eclipse Foundation has announced the creation of the Sovereign AI Foundation, a vendor-neutral initiative aimed at helping organizations manage AI platform lock-in, monitor cyber risk, and maintain control of their data. The group, which has been active on Eclipse’s project site since July, brings together an initial community of 17 organizations dedicated to advancing AI sovereignty through open-source collaboration.

The foundation's mission is to help organizations navigate AI dependencies, which can limit a software engineering team's ability to control data processing, choose technologies, or adapt to evolving costs, requirements, and provider terms. Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director at the Eclipse Foundation, explains that the deeper the dependency on a single AI provider, the greater the potential risk.

However, the costs of this lock-in become apparent in predictable areas, such as higher prices, difficulty in rebuilding integrations, moving data and workloads, compliance delays, and operational disruption. The Sovereign AI Foundation aims to provide an open forum for members to understand AI dependencies, compare experiences, and develop practical guidance for decisions regarding data, models, infrastructure, and operations.

The foundation focuses on five key areas: mapping real-world use cases, assessing technologies and trends, developing practical resources, building a peer community, and translating research into action. This initiative, which includes 17 founding members from various sectors, aims to tackle issues related to data control, cyber safety, and lock-in, moving beyond the hype cycle surrounding AI and focusing on enterprise and industrial applications that deliver measurable business value without vendor lock-in.