On-prem for AI Inference? Why It’s Often the Wrong Path – and What to Do Instead

Sovereignty is one of the strongest driving forces in AI today. After years of dependence on American cloud providers, companies, government agencies, and developers are realizing that the future of AI must run differently – with control, transparency, and sustainability. But for many, the answer is wrong: they think the solution is on-prem.

Here we explain why it's usually a bad choice, what better alternatives exist – and how you can easily switch from OpenAI or Anthropic without sending data abroad.

Why Sovereignty Matters

Using large language models is now business-critical: they write, understand, translate, summarize, code, analyze, and interact. But if the infrastructure behind these models is in another country, governed by different laws, and lacks transparency – then we give up control.

Sovereignty doesn't mean everything has to be built from scratch, but that you know where, how, and under what rules your AI runs.

The Alternatives – and Why On-prem Rarely Holds Up in the Long Run

Many organizations are drawn to the idea of running AI models on their own servers. It sounds secure. But the reality often looks like this:

1. On-prem Inference

You buy GPU servers, install LLMs, and build infrastructure yourself.

Problem? You need not just a large model, but also embeddings, tool integrations, OCR, image models – plus an entire layer with Kubernetes, internal billing, rate limits, auth, monitoring, logging, and AI Act compliance. You become an AI infrastructure company – without wanting to.

2. Rent GPU

You rent access to GPUs in the cloud or data centers.

Problem? You avoid the hardware, but still have to build and operate everything on top. Expensive standby costs, lots of manual work.

3. Serverless API (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)

You use a ready-made API – fast, easy, and well-packaged.

Problem? You give up transparency, control, and data sovereignty. Your data is sent to American clouds, and API terms can change at any time.

Here’s How the Alternatives Compare – at a Glance

Alternative	Advantages	Disadvantages	Sovereignty
On-prem inference	Full control over hardware and network No data leaves local network	High hardware costs Large operational responsibility Need to build and maintain entire platform	Maximum, but heavy lifting
Rent GPU	Flexible GPU access No responsibility for physical hardware	Still need to build and operate model API, billing, logging etc. Often high standby costs	High, but requires expertise
Serverless API (OpenAI etc.)	Easy integration Quick to get started No operations	Low transparency Dependence on foreign cloud provider Limited control over data	Low, no local control
Local AI inference as a service	No operations Full API access Runs under Swedish law Built for AI Act	Smaller providers may have limited model breadth compared to Big Tech	High – local, open, traceable

The Smart Way: AI Inference as a Local Service

Instead of going all in on on-prem – with your own servers, operations team, monitoring, and AI Act compliance – you can use Swedish AI infrastructure that gives you:

Full OpenAI compatibility (same API surface)
No data sent outside Sweden
Access to open models (e.g., Mistral, LLaMA, Whisper, CLIP)
Support for tools, embeddings, RAG, and multimodal
Built for compliance and logging from the start
Transparent pricing

All of this – without needing to become an operations company.

Switch from OpenAI or Anthropic – with a Single Command

If you're already using api.openai.com/v1 or api.anthropic.com/v1 – you can switch to Berget AI in one minute:

// Just change your base URL:
const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.berget.ai/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.BERGET_API_KEY,
});

Same models. Same protocol. But with Swedish sovereignty and full control.

Start Running Sovereign AI Today

Try https://api.berget.ai and run AI inference with full transparency, local control, and a future-proof platform. You no longer have to choose between security and productivity – now you get both.

👉 Learn more and create an account at api.berget.ai

Want to know more about how we can help your company with sovereign AI infrastructure? Contact us for a discussion.