Europe is falling behind on AI and tech, and Britain must chart its own path, says Keegan McBride (opens the source in a new tab)
- Keegan McBride, writing with Sam Cash, says frontier AI scales with compute, capital and energy, and Europe is short of all three; Goldman Sachs puts AI-related Capex Capital expenditure: money a company spends on long-lived things like buildings, chips and data centres. at just under $8tn over five years.
- He cites DIGITALEUROPE research finding Europe behind in seven of eight critical technologies, including old strengths such as robotics and space.
- With only the US and China offering full tech ecosystems, countries must pick partners. Britain, he argues, should become a "tech-enabled state": bet on space, quantum and life sciences, stay close to the US, and rebuild government with AI.
- 7 of 8
- critical techs where Europe trails
- ~$8tn
- AI capex, next 5 years (Goldman)
Why it matters India faces the same fork: it has little frontier compute but is exporting its digital public infrastructure, which the essay names as India's play. Which ecosystem it leans on will shape its access to chips, models and capital.
Other side The case leans heavily on aligning with the US. Sovereignty advocates argue that depending on American firms is itself a strategic risk, and Europe's caution on rules could look wiser if AI harms mount.