In 2024, AI is consistently front-page news. From Nvidia hitting a trillion-dollar market cap to the growing energy usage of data centres, it is the m

How can Europe build its first trillion dollar start-up?

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2024-12-22 23:30:02

In 2024, AI is consistently front-page news. From Nvidia hitting a trillion-dollar market cap to the growing energy usage of data centres, it is the most discussed technology of our time. And it is a technology that the US dominates, with three of the most valuable AI start-ups, Anthropic, OpenAI and Xai, based there. 

But here’s the confounding thing - the global race to build artificial general intelligence was initiated  by a London-based start-up, DeepMind, founded in 2010 - well before Anthropic or OpenAI existed.

It’s a question that sits within a broader trend of the US becoming more globally dominant in technology, despite the EU having a larger population. There are only nine examples of trillion-dollar tech companies in the world - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Broadcom and TSMC. All but one are American. None are European. Going a level down, there are four $100bn+ companies compared to the US’s 33, and from Mario Draghi to Emmanuel Macron there is increasing recognition from European leaders that something has stalled. 

I share this view and, after 17 years spent founding and investing in start-ups, I believe that the growth of the technology industry in Europe is core to creating a more prosperous and resilient society. You only need to look at the UK’s economic stagnation since 2008 to see why. 

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