| STARTUPS |
| OpenAI’s expansion into the EU spells trouble for AI startups |
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| Europe is becoming a key overseas market for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, raising concerns over the EU’s reliance on foreign tech. |
| ChatGPT Enterprise adoption has surged sixfold year-over-year across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with rising interest from finance, retail and life sciences firms, Nicolai Skabo, OpenAI’s enterprise lead for the regions, told Bloomberg. Governments are signing on, too: the UK recently agreed to roll out ChatGPT Enterprise across its 2,500-person civil service, joining Germany and Greece in deploying the chatbot across government workforces. |
| As ChatGPT embeds itself deeper into Europe’s digital infrastructure, experts worry that OpenAI’s dominance could choke local AI innovation amid a tough economic and regulatory landscape. Some call for bigger investments in homegrown startups, relaxed regulations, and a stronger talent pipeline. |
| “There is really no LLM model provider that can approach the scope, scale, and breadth of functionality of OpenAI,” Scott Bickley, Advisor Fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, told The Deep View. “The next in line are not European-based companies either… it is hard to envision how [the EU] could muster the massive investments and infrastructure to compete.” |
| Some experts say that the imbalance makes it harder for European firms to scale. |
| “The EU is ahead on responsible AI frameworks, but still trails the U.S. in commercializing innovation,” said Jonathan Garini, CEO of enterprise AI startup fifthelement.ai, referring to the EU AI Act. “Deeper integration of OpenAI sets a higher barrier for startups and strengthens competitive pressure.” |
| Some are already leaving. |
| “Our decision to migrate key operations to North America wasn’t about abandoning Europe; it was about survival,” Juan Graña, CEO of Neurologyca, an AI startup founded in Spain, told TDV. “In the U.S., the ecosystem rewards experimentation… In Europe, it’s heavily mediated by compliance.” |
| “If Europe doesn’t want to depend on U.S. or Chinese technologies, it must create the conditions for its own to thrive,” Graña said. |
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| OpenAI’s threats to Europe’s homegrown AI ecosystem offer a glimpse of what’s to come if U.S. tech giants continue to dominate the global AI landscape. America’s lead stems from a business-friendly culture backed by massive investment in infrastructure, compute and talent. However, most countries, especially in the Global South, lack the regulatory flexibility and resources to replicate the U.S. model. If nations want a meaningful stake in the AI economy, they must treat AI as a nation-building priority despite the risks. If not, the AI gap will only widen—and many will be left playing catch-up. |
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