Angela Merkel’s calm steadied a wounded nation — but it also put it to sleep. For sixteen years, Germany mistook caution for competence and comfort for courage. This essay dissects how the myth of …
So why not also issuing grants to European tech firms?
Possible but it costs additional money.
So, there will be more money to be made.
Unless the users lose market share. Intel fell behind because they tried to use their own manufacturing process.
It can work, but in a free market, that means tax breaks or subsidies. Then generating those additional €billions for investment is not the main part of the solution.
It is our choice how we shape our market for these firms - we can steer it to any direction we like.
USSR 2.0. Europe has to be big enough and needs something to compensate. China uses their AI chips which require more electricity which they can provide with their own coal. Europe has to import additional energy.
It’s still necessary to aim for European independence, it’s just more complicated.
Which policies can make people use Mistral, or use the European hyperscaler that doesn’t have locations all over the world for endpoints? Subsidies and government agencies.
Policies will give you some digital companies but not the independence that you want. Europe is not big enough to beat the network effects of the world. There are two graphic card companies, and the Chinese one. There is no place for Europe.
I am not saying that you should abandon your goal. You are just waisting years if you think that policies are enough.
Possible but it costs additional money.
Unless the users lose market share. Intel fell behind because they tried to use their own manufacturing process.
It can work, but in a free market, that means tax breaks or subsidies. Then generating those additional €billions for investment is not the main part of the solution.
USSR 2.0. Europe has to be big enough and needs something to compensate. China uses their AI chips which require more electricity which they can provide with their own coal. Europe has to import additional energy.
It’s still necessary to aim for European independence, it’s just more complicated.
Policies.
Policies.
Given that Europe, I repeat myself again, is the second largest economy in the world, it definitely is big enough.
Which policies can make people use Mistral, or use the European hyperscaler that doesn’t have locations all over the world for endpoints? Subsidies and government agencies.
Policies will give you some digital companies but not the independence that you want. Europe is not big enough to beat the network effects of the world. There are two graphic card companies, and the Chinese one. There is no place for Europe.
I am not saying that you should abandon your goal. You are just waisting years if you think that policies are enough.
I never said that.
Your answer to problems is policies.
The answer to your objections is policies. That does not mean at all that we should rely on policies alone to achieve independence.
Then which problems cannot be solved with policies? I think my objections are already part of those problems.
The point is: policies alone are not enough to achieve independence, but can be a tool to address your objections.
Address, but not solve. Turning this into an endless struggle is good for the hegemons, but not for Europe.