What Is Data Sovereignty?

Data Sovereignty — the principle that data is subject to the laws and governance of the jurisdiction in which it is collected, stored, or processed.

Data sovereignty shapes where organisations are willing to send data and run AI workloads. It drives interest in "sovereign AI" — keeping models, data, and inference within national borders — and is a recurring factor in government and regulated-sector procurement, where storing or processing data offshore can raise legal, security, and political concerns.

Source: General principle; national data governance frameworks