“Check against delivery”
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am so grateful to be here – literally surrounded by the best and brightest in the Italian tech scene. Founders and angel investors. Giants of industry and rising stars of AI. Tech geniuses and trailblazing entrepreneurs. I see you all and think – Italy has got talent. And it gathers here, at the Italian Tech Week.
So I would like to begin with one of the stories you have heard here in Turin. The year was 2007. Two high-school friends were huddled together in a garage in Milan. They had just enough gear to code, and an idea they were sure could break through. For the next three years, they travelled around Italy to find someone – anyone – who would finance their project. But the answer was always the same – too young, too bold, too risky. And so, in 2010, they left for San Francisco. In just two weeks, they found their first investors. Their idea became one of the largest marketplaces for software in the world. And just a few months ago, their company – Kong – appeared on the massive screens of Times Square, New York, when it reached a valuation of 2 billion dollars. I chose this story because it shows the incredible talent we have in Italy and Europe. But sometimes, incredible talent is not enough. You also need an environment that allows you to thrive. To be sure, many things have changed and improved since 2010. Venture capital in Italy has increased by over 600% in a decade.
But we know that the number of unicorns is still too small, and one third of them end up leaving our continent. This is a warning sign. We cannot accept that our most talented may have to leave in order to thrive. You must find the right soil to flourish here in Europe. I want Europe to be worthy of you. Voglio unEuropa alla vostra altezza.
I believe that my job is to create the best conditions for you to thrive, right here in our continent. This is the mission that drives me every day. I want the best of Europe to choose Europe. And I want the future of AI to be made in Europe.
But we know that there are too many obstacles that stand in your way. I would like to focus on three of them. The first and most obvious issue is the lack of funding. Heres the surprising truth. Europe does not lack capital. European household savings reach almost 1.4 trillion EUR, compared with just over 800 billion in the United States. What we lack is risk capital, and equity. Here in Europe only 24% of households financial wealth is invested in equity, compared to 42% in the US. We must catch-up, and we must do it fast. This is why, as a first step, we are creating a multi-billion Scaleup Europe Fund – in partnership with private investors. The Fund will make direct equity investments in strategic sectors – like AI, quantum, clean tech, and more. It will help growing companies like yours to close their funding gaps. But we also need a more structural solution. We need a deep and liquid capital market for Europe, where you can find the capital you need without crossing an ocean. This is the goal of our new Savings and Investments Union. We are bringing the funding to you – so that you can grow right here at home.
The second obstacle you face is fragmentation of the Single Market. We live in an age where a line of code can cross the continent in a millisecond – while the startup behind it gets stuck at the border. You know it all too well. Too often, it is easier to expand to another continent, than across Europe. It can be a nightmare to deal with 27 different bureaucracies and legislations. So, how can we fix this? We are proposing a completely new approach to how innovative companies operate across Europe. We call it the 28th regime. Instead of tweaking 27 national systems to bring them closer, we are starting something new. Next year, we will present new legislation, to create one single and simple set of rules all over our Union. It will be the same in Turin as in Lyon, Barcelona or Munich. So that you can scale up across borders much more easily than ever before. My point is straight-forward. A San Francisco start-up can scale up easily across the US. I want the same to be true for you. Because Europe is your home. And you must feel at home everywhere in Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The third problem I want to address is the slow uptake of new technology. This is precisely where business struggled thirty years ago, when our companies were too slow to digitalise and go online. And so we lost ground to our main competitors. This time, Europe has a stronger starting position. Large European companies are taking up AI at the same pace as their US peers. But smaller companies still lag behind. And other competitors like China and India are also running fast. We must switch gears. We must speed up AI adoption across the board. This is why, next week, we are presenting an Apply AI Strategy. It is based on a basic yet transformative principle. AI first. Whenever a company or public office faces a new challenge, the first question must be: How can AI help? Because when AI is in the loop, we reach better solutions. Fast. Reliable. Affordable. Some of your start-ups are already pioneering it. AI can assist doctors in diagnosing cancer, or accelerate innovative medicines discovery. AI adoption needs to be widespread. And we want to help speed it up. So we will create a European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres. This means top-class healthcare at all corners of Europe, with shorter waiting times. And we will incentivise hospitals and pharma companies to take up innovative AI solutions. Because AI can save lives. And Europe must lead the way.
We will promote the same “AI first” approach across our strategic industries. From robotics to energy. But today I would like to focus on one sector in particular. The automotive. This industry has a very special place in the story of Turin. In the years of the economic boom, Turins car industry became a symbol across Italy. A symbol of progress and independence. A symbol of the future. Today, the industry is going through deep transformations. And one of these has to do with AI. Self-driving cars are already a reality in the US and China. And the same should be true here in Europa Cars with AI can reduce congestion, connect remote neighbourhoods to public transport, and make our roads safer. AI first means safety first. So why do we not set up a network of European cities where the first self-driving cars can hit the road? A coalition of 60 Italian mayors have already expressed their interest. Let us make it happen. We are also ready to support the automotive industry – to develop innovative models that are made in Europe, and made for European streets. The automotive industry is a European pride. And now technology can save jobs, and breathe new life into the sector. The future of cars – and the cars of the future – must be made in Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Too often, I hear that Europe is late to the AI race. The sceptics say we will repeat the mistakes of the past. And another generation of European talents will be forced to leave. I disagree. Not only because the AI race is still warming up. But also, because I have seen what European can do, when we set our eyes on a goal. Including in the tech field. Ten years ago, Europe was trailing behind the rest of the world in the race for computational power. We had only one supercomputer in the global top ten. But then a whole continent mobilised. We made supercomputers a top priority of my first mandate. And today, we have four supercomputers in the global top ten. Two of them in Italy. They support our innovative start-ups to develop, train, and deploy their next-generation AI models. We have defied the sceptics and made Europe a global leader. I know this story of beating the odds may sound familiar to you. Because it is also the story of so many of you here. How many times have you been told that you were aiming too high? How many times have you thought that there was nothing else to try? And yet, here you are. Not because you never failed, but because you always found the strength to hit the road again. This is the spirit I feel in this room. And I want our Union to be inspired by you. We will spare no effort to make Europe an AI continent. We will spare no effort to make you choose Europe. Because this is the great mission of our times.
Thank you so much for having me here. And long live Europe.
