The race to dominate AI infrastructure has left Europe trailing the US — however the continent nonetheless has a shot at international management in AI apps.
That was the decision of Dutch tech leaders on the Meeting, the invite-only coverage observe of TNW Convention in Amsterdam.
Whereas Silicon Valley controls the scaffolding for AI, they urged Europe to deal with constructing apps on prime.
Main the decision was Jeroen van Glabbeek, CEO and founding father of CM.com, a buyer engagement platform with a market cap of round €217mn and annual revenues of €274mn in 2024.
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Van Glabbeek believes the US benefit in AI infrastructure may develop into a launchpad for European software program. “The infrastructure is already there,” he stated.
That infrastructure is being constructed with unprecedented funding. In 2025 alone, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft plan to spend over $300bn (€261bn) mixed on knowledge centres, networking, and cloud providers for AI, in response to CNBC.
Van Glabbeek referred to as it “the largest funding in know-how within the historical past of mankind.”
European tech corporations can’t match this scale of spending on {hardware}. However they will capitalise by constructing AI apps on the foundations laid within the US.
Europe already has a robust file of constructing top-tier apps, from Spotify and Grammarly to Revolut and Klarna. Within the AI period, Van Glabbeek envisions a brand new wave of them rising from the area.
“We gained’t win the hyperscaler AI platform play, however there’s nonetheless one thing optimistic to compete for — and it’s on the applying aspect,” he stated.
The sentiment was echoed by different tech leaders on stage.
Sohrab Hosseini, co-founder of Amsterdam-based generative AI startup Orq.ai, highlighted the alternatives on the “orchestration and software ranges,” whereas Lucien Burm, President of the Dutch Startup Affiliation, pointed to the place the revenue lies.
“The cash might be to be made within the software layer,” he stated. “We’re not going to win that a lot in very deep AI {hardware} tech.”
To fulfil Europe’s AI potential, the audio system referred to as for a trio of economic modifications: higher danger urge for food from buyers, much less pink tape round public funding, and extra native procurement. However their most urgent demand is one which reverberates throughout the continent’s tech sector: innovation-friendly regulation.
