Poland ranks first in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes the Balkan states, in terms of the number of active AI start-ups in 2024, with a share of 23% of the total, in a ranking made by The Recursive. Romania ranks third, with almost 14% of the total, after Greece. One way or another, artificial intelligence will become an indispensable part of the planet's economy and advanced societies. Whoever controls AI will control the future of humanity. But for a company, a country or perhaps an alliance of states to get there, they must first invest. Currently, there is a war of technology, investments and regulations for supremacy in AI between the great economic and military powers of the world. For now, the strongest are the Americans. It was in 2018 when the European Union decided that it had to do something in order not to fall behind the USA and China in the development of Artificial Intelligence. The European Commission then announced the increase of investments in AI by no less than 70%, to 1.5 billion euros, by 2020, in order to catch up with Asian countries and the USA, which were investing at least three times more than Europe . Also in 2018, the nVidia company decided to bet, despite the current, on what would be the basis of today's AI madness, on the Turing architecture for graphics processors. This brought together digital graphics and AI, enabling the creation of what is today known as generative artificial intelligence. How much the American company spent on this bet is not known, but, as a comparison, nVidia invested a billion dollars in AI start-ups last year alone. It is money spent on others to build a favorable ecosystem, not on one's own research. Then, also for comparison, in the USA one of the first measures that President Donald Trump took in his new mandate was to support a private project of 500 billion dollars for the development of AI. It is a partnership between SoftBank, which is a Japanese investment company, OpenAI and Oracle. The project was introduced after former President Biden bequeathed to Trump a proposal to limit exports of American chips that enable the development of AI. In Europe, these restrictions would hit especially the Eastern European states, even those considered US partners. In Poland, Biden's proposals are considered proof that the US has never considered this country as part of the West, writes Rzeczpospolita, the main business newspaper there. The restrictions come shortly after the Polish government announced a 1.2 billion euro boost to the development of AI in the country in 2025 with the help of universities, private companies and the state. The project is financed with European funds. Poland ranks first in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes the Balkan states, in terms of the number of active AI start-ups in 2024, with a share of 23% of the total, in a ranking made by The Recursive. Romania ranks third, with almost 14% of the total, after Greece. But Biden's export restrictions do not hit the big European economies. These are also the leaders in the EU in the development of AI. An analysis by Stanford University shows that in 2023 the private sector in Germany and Sweden invested the most in AI, about 1.8 billion euros each. France ranks second, with 1.2 billion euros, and Spain third, with 400 million euros. In that year, US companies invested the equivalent of 62.5 billion euros in AI, and those in China about 7.3 billion euros. These are the world champions. With 3.5 billion euros invested, Great Britain is third on the podium. Since then, the global battle has intensified, as evidenced by the recently released «humble» AI-based smartphones. Thus, it can be said that US AI chip export restrictions are helping the big guys grow even bigger. These restrictions have not yet been approved by the US Congress and do not yet have the force of law. Also, the ceilings can be lifted if the importing countries meet certain conditions imposed by the US. But experts, such as the Poles, agree that if implemented, they reduce a country's AI development capacity and, worse, force a reorientation towards non-Western competitors. Such as China. In Europe, the basis for AI development is laid by the European Commission with the EU Next Generation program. It proposes 4.4 billion euros for AI initiatives. The biggest savings would be the biggest beneficiaries, but not in the natural order. The southern countries Italy and Spain would receive the most funds. Germany and France are in the next positions, but they would receive six times less money. Greece, Poland and Romania are next. Experts agree that Europe has made major strides in raising AI awareness and setting commitments. The EU is good at equipment for making AI chips. Otherwise, the US leads, and still by far. McKinsey has calculated that generative artificial intelligence can add $575 billion to the European economy by 2030. Until then, investor interest in the European AI sector is growing. In 2024, European AI companies attracted almost €3 billion in funding, up from €2.1 billion the previous year. The most money went to companies from France and Germany, according to tech.eu.
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