Investing.com -- The European Union must reduce regulation of U.S. technology companies if it wants to participate in the artificial intelligence economy, U.S. ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder told CNBC on Friday.

"If you regulate them off the continent, you're not going to be a part of the AI economy," Puzder said during an appearance on CNBC's "Europe Early Edition."

Puzder said EU participation in the AI economy requires data centers, data and access to the United States AI hardware stack. He warned against over-regulation, moving the goal post on regulations and hitting companies with large fines.

"You know the very companies that can bring you the data, the data centers and the American AI hardware stack," he said. "If you regulate them off the continent, you're not going to be a part of the AI economy."

"So I think it's important for Europe to take a very careful look at what it's doing with respect to those companies. And I think it's important for those companies to look at the prospects of continuing to do significant business in the EU," Puzder said.

The ambassador's comments follow multiple actions by the European Commission against U.S. tech companies over the past year. These moves have drawn criticism from officials in President Donald Trump's administration.

In February, Meta was warned that the EU intends to impose measures on the company to reverse its WhatsApp AI policy, following a 200 million euro ($230 million) fine in April. Apple was fined 500 million euros in February and Google was hit with a 2.95 billion euro fine in September.

In December, Elon Musk's social media app X was fined 120 million euros. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the fine an "attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments" in a post on X at the time.

On Thursday, the Commission opened formal proceedings to investigate whether Snapchat, owned by Snap, is in compliance with the Digital Services Act over child safety online.