Sovereign AI: your AI agents hosted in France, and what that really guarantees
A sovereign AI is an artificial-intelligence deployment in which you know, item by item, where the data is hosted, where the model runs, who the providers are and which law applies to each of them. At Blue Lemon Agent, data is hosted in France by default; where the model runs depends on the plan you choose, and the architecture selected, described in the quote, aims to reduce exposure to extraterritorial laws without being able, on its own, to eliminate it.
A sovereign AI is an artificial-intelligence system whose data location, model execution location, providers and applicable law are known, documented and chosen. It is built plan by plan: data hosted in France, model run at its publisher or locally, SecNumCloud-qualified hosting for reinforced needs. Location alone does not guarantee immunity from an extraterritorial law.
Why AI sovereignty has become a real issue
Almost all the major consumer AI services are published by American companies. Using them often means having your data processed by a provider subject to United States law, even when its servers are in Europe. As long as it is drafts with nothing at stake, the risk is low. But as soon as an AI agent handles confidential information — customers' personal data, trade secrets, medical records, legal documents — the question of control becomes central. Who can access that data? Under which jurisdiction? What happens if the supplier changes its terms, raises its prices or closes a service?
Sovereignty answers those three concerns: confidentiality (your data cannot be read by a third party), compliance (you meet the GDPR without elaborate legal arrangements) and control (you do not depend on a foreign platform you do not govern).
The CLOUD Act: why the server's location is not enough
The CLOUD Act is a United States law of March 2018. It requires a provider of electronic communication or remote computing services subject to US jurisdiction to disclose, on lawful demand, the data in its possession, custody or control, whether stored inside or outside the United States (18 U.S.C. § 2713). Choosing the "European region" of such a provider therefore does not change the law that applies to it. This is one of the reasons why the Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated, on 16 July 2020, the "Privacy Shield" between the Union and the United States (judgment C-311/18, known as "Schrems II"), while upholding standard contractual clauses under conditions; a new adequacy decision for the United States was adopted on 10 July 2023 (source: CNIL). A sovereign architecture aims to reduce that risk, without removing it as a matter of principle: you must check, for the configuration chosen, whether any actor in the chain — contracting entity, host, model publisher, subcontractor, holder of the keys — is subject to an extraterritorial law. Until that check has been made and written down, immunity cannot be claimed.
GDPR: what hosting in France settles, and what it does not
The GDPR does not require your processing to be hosted in France. It applies to any processing carried out in the context of the activities of an establishment in the Union (Article 3) and subjects any transfer to a third country, including onward transfers, to the conditions of its Chapter V (Article 44): a transfer outside the Union does not take your data out of the regulation, it obliges you to frame it. Hosting the data in France avoids a transfer on account of hosting. Every other flow still has to be examined: the call to the AI model, subcontractors, third-party channels. That is the purpose of the table below. The regulation also requires data minimisation, a lawful basis, traceability of access and the ability to honour individuals' rights; when Blue Lemon Agent processes data on your behalf, it acts as a processor within the meaning of Article 28, under a data processing agreement annexed to the contract (T&Cs, Article 13).
Plan by plan: where your data is, where the model runs
The table below compares the four configurations offered, dimension by dimension.
| Dimension | Agility and Serenity (hosted plans) | Agility or Serenity with the Sovereign model run locally option | SecNumCloud-qualified hosting option (on quotation) | 100% Sovereign (hardware at your premises) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application hosting | Private server dedicated to and isolated for each client, fully managed, in France; backups and supervision in France. Hosting operator: named in the quote. | Same resource, or a resource isolated in France, or your own hardware. | Infrastructure of a provider qualified SecNumCloud by ANSSI, named in the quote. | Dedicated computer installed on your premises, which you own (T&Cs, Articles 2 and 21). |
| Inference location (where the model runs) | At the model publisher, through its programming interface, outside the hosted resource. Region of the call (United States, European Union): specified in the quote. | On the resource isolated in France or on your hardware: no data is sent to an external AI API for the core of the processing. | Within the qualified scope if the resource allows it, otherwise a sovereign model run locally. The feasibility of accelerated inference (GPU) within the qualified scope is to be checked with the provider: on quotation. | Locally, on your hardware; sovereign model included in the plan (T&Cs, Article 14). |
| Model publisher | Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI) or Gemini (Google), as needed. Contracting entity and country: named in the quote. | Mistral Small 3.2 (Mistral AI, France, Apache 2.0 licence) by default; EuroLLM 9B (project funded by the European Union); Lucie (OpenLLM-France) and Teuken (OpenGPT-X, Germany) on quotation only. | As for the Sovereign model option, depending on the resource. | As for the Sovereign model option. |
| Subcontractors and transfers | The call to the model is processing by a third party; depending on the entity and the region, it is a transfer outside the Union to be framed under Chapter V of the GDPR (Article 44). The pre-processing filter before transmission pseudonymises, masks or discards, "without constituting a guarantee of the absence of any transfer where the processing requested requires it" (T&Cs, Article 14). List of subcontractors, places and transfers: in the quote and in the processing annex (T&Cs, Article 13). | For the core of the processing, no call to an external API; ancillary services used (speech synthesis, OCR, translation, SMS, third-party platforms) may involve third-party providers named in the quote. | Qualified provider and its subcontractors: named in the quote; ancillary services: likewise. | Remote maintenance by Blue Lemon Agent, access closed at the end of the contract (T&Cs, Article 21.5); third-party dialogue channels (Teams, WhatsApp, telephony): each is governed by its publisher; offline mode: option (T&Cs, Article 14). |
| Keys, logs, backups | Encryption in transit and at rest on the hosted resource; the encryption mechanisms, their components and key management are those documented for the architecture selected; the events logged, their content, retention period and access are defined for the deployment selected. Backups in France. | As for the hosted plans. | According to the qualified scope and the quote. | Data stored on your hardware and belonging to you (T&Cs, Article 21.3); encryption at rest: option (T&Cs, Article 14); location of and party responsible for backups: defined in the quote. |
| Applicable certifications | No certification specific to Blue Lemon Agent. The GDPR and the AI Act set obligations to be assessed processing by processing, not certifications. Health data: an HDS-certified host is required by law, on quotation, replacing the private server (T&Cs, Article 13). | As for the hosted plans. | SecNumCloud qualification of the hosting provider for its qualified scope; it "is valid only for the scope, the provider, the activities, the components and the period covered by verified evidence" (T&Cs, Article 13). | None; "a deployment carried out in the client's information system in no case amounts to HDS certification of the provider" (T&Cs, Article 13). |
| Limits: what location does not guarantee on its own | The data is hosted in France, but the model runs at a third-party publisher: the location of the hosting does not cover inference. | The core of the processing stays in France or with you; ancillary services and third-party channels still have to be examined one by one. | The qualified scope covers the provider's infrastructure, not the agent, its connectors or third-party channels. | Maintenance and dialogue flows are outbound flows, unless the offline-mode option is chosen; the agent's software remains under licence and ceases at the end of the contract (T&Cs, Articles 12, 21.4 and 21.5). |
In every case, the architecture selected is designed to reduce exposure to extraterritorial laws; it does not remove it as a matter of principle. The quote sets the architecture actually ordered, names the providers and the laws that apply to them, and fixes the guarantees.
The prices of each plan and each option are on the Pricing page; the Sovereign model and SecNumCloud options are added to the subscription, SecNumCloud on quotation.
Sensitive data: HDS, SecNumCloud and the sectors concerned
Some activities handle particularly protected data and require a higher level of security:
- Health — health deployment on quotation. The target architecture provides for hosting suited to health data, which French law requires to be entrusted to an HDS-certified host. Before any go-live, BLA checks the host chosen, the HDS certificate in force, the activities it covers, the subcontractors, the places of processing, remote access, retention and contractual responsibilities. Until those elements are in place, the offer is not directly orderable: write to us to study your health deployment.
- Public sector & strategic data — ANSSI qualification for cloud providers, required for certain administrations and operators, chosen by the others according to their needs.
- Legal — lawyers' professional secrecy: a legal assistant cannot expose case documents to a third party.
- Finance & accounting — confidentiality of financial data, handled by an accounting agent or a financial analysis agent.
How we reduce your AI agent's exposure
Depending on the architecture chosen, the agent can be deployed on an isolated resource hosted in France, with encryption, role-based access and logging. The host, the subcontractors, the places of processing, any transfers and the measures actually included are set out in the quotation and in the evidence register.
- Data hosted in France, or local inference on your own premises, with the deployment objective of processing and access operated within the European Union.
- Depending on the plan, dependence on a provider subject to United States law is either reduced to the call to the model alone (hosted plans) or ruled out for the core of the processing (Sovereign model option, 100% Sovereign plan); the host, the model publisher, the subcontractors and the laws applicable to them are named in the quotation.
- A data processing agreement carrying the obligations of Article 28 of the GDPR, encrypted access, logging and least privilege, within the scope documented for the architecture selected.
- Where the law requires it for health data, HDS hosting options; for regulated data, SecNumCloud hosting (qualified provider) options; on quotation, on verified evidence.
- Reversibility: your data is returned to you in a standard format on request within thirty days of the end of the contract; the agent, its settings and configurations remain under licence (T&Cs, Articles 12 and 21).
Go further
Frequently asked questions
What is a sovereign AI?
An AI deployment in which you know and choose, item by item, where the data is located, where the model runs, who the providers are and which law applies to each. At Blue Lemon Agent, it is built plan by plan, and the quote sets the architecture ordered.
Does the GDPR require AI to be hosted in France?
No. It applies to your processing wherever the servers are and frames any transfer outside the Union (Chapter V). Hosting in France avoids a transfer on account of hosting; the call to the model, subcontractors and third-party channels still have to be examined.
Can the CLOUD Act reach my AI agent's data?
It requires a provider subject to United States jurisdiction to disclose the data it holds or controls, wherever it is stored. The test is not where the server is but which law applies to the provider. Hosting with a provider not subject to that law reduces the exposure; in the hosted plans, the call to the model at its publisher remains a flow to examine, and claiming immunity would require having checked the whole chain.
Do all plans run the model in France?
No. On Agility and Serenity, data is hosted in France and the model (Claude, GPT, Gemini, as needed) is called at its publisher. With the Sovereign model option or the 100% Sovereign plan, the model runs on an isolated resource in France or on your hardware.
Can I use a sovereign AI for health data?
Yes, and health deployment is on quotation. For health data, French law requires the host to be HDS-certified: the requirement is settled with you at scoping, before any go-live. BLA then checks the host chosen, the certificate in force, the activities it covers, the subcontractors, the places of processing, remote access, retention and contractual responsibilities; until those elements are in place, the offer is not directly orderable. For state or regulated data, a SecNumCloud qualification from ANSSI is possible. These levels belong to a reinforced security framework in France.
What is SecNumCloud-qualified hosting?
SecNumCloud is the qualification awarded by ANSSI to cloud providers that meet its requirements baseline (version 3.2), which includes requirements for protection against non-European law. It qualifies the hosting provider and its scope, not the agent or Blue Lemon Agent. We offer it on quotation, because its price depends on the qualified provider chosen, the volume of resources and the length of commitment.
Editorial responsibility — Written and published under the responsibility of Ronan Le Boulaire, publishing director, President of Lindbergh Formation, the company that publishes Blue Lemon Agent (see "About us").
First published: . Last substantive review: .
Correction policy — A factual, legal or numerical error can be reported to contact@bluelemonagent.ai; it is reviewed within five working days, and any substantive correction updates the date of last review. Technical releases with no change of content do not.
This content is general information; it is not legal advice.
Sources
- European Union, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), — accessed on — Articles 3, 28 and 44
- European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Act), — accessed on — Articles 12 and 14
- Court of Justice of the European Union, Grand Chamber, Judgment C-311/18, known as "Schrems II" (ECLI:EU:C:2020:559), — accessed on — invalidation of the Privacy Shield; standard contractual clauses upheld under conditions
- CNIL, Transferring data outside the EU (page in French) — accessed on — undated page; adequacy decision for the United States of 10 July 2023
- United States Department of Justice, CLOUD Act (Pub. L. 115-141, Division V), — accessed on — codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2713, the text of which was consulted on law.cornell.edu
- ANSSI, Cloud computing service providers (SecNumCloud), requirements baseline, version 3.2 (document in French), — accessed on — chapter 19.6, protection against non-European law
- Agence du numérique en santé, Health data hosting (page in French) — accessed on — framework for health data hosting and the activities concerned; Article L. 1111-8 of the French Public Health Code
- Blue Lemon Agent, Terms of sale, Articles 2, 12, 13, 14 and 21 — see also the Pricing page
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