# Europe needs to make it easier to build AI companies

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/europe-needs-to-make-it-easier-to-build-ai-companies/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Eric Schmidt](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-schmidt/) · Eric Schmidt is a former CEO of Google and technology executive. · Scaled Google as CEO through 2011, now runs rocket maker Relativity Space and co-founded Schmidt Sciences.
- Host: [Nicolai Tangen](https://realalpha.app/people/nicolai-tangen/) · CEO, Norges Bank Investment Management
- Show: In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
- Episode: [Eric Schmidt: Are We Ready for Superintelligence? | Podcast | In Good Company](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/), Oct 21, 2026
- Moment: 17:41 to 20:57 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/europe-needs-to-make-it-easier-to-build-ai-companies/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1061

## Quote

> “The regulators **regulate before they innovate**. My favorite example is that five years ago, Brussels wrote their AI strategy.”
> — [Eric Schmidt](https://realalpha.app/people/eric-schmidt/) at [18:41](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1121) · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

## Takeaways

1. Europe has talent but struggles to turn it into tech companies.
2. He proposes lighter rules for companies with fewer than 21 employees.
3. European AI models could preserve local history, language and culture.

## About this segment

Eric Schmidt argues that regulation, limited capital and high energy costs hold back European tech. He says Europe can still build AI applications and protect its own languages and culture.

From “Eric Schmidt: Are We Ready for Superintelligence? | Podcast | In Good Company”, Oct 21, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[17:43](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1063) Yes. You indicated that Europe was particularly change resistant. What are your observations when it comes to Europe? Well, I'm going to sound like an incredibly obnoxious American, and I am. So Europe is a great place to live. The people that I talk to are generally happy, although they complain about their governments a lot. But getting Europe onto the footing of innovation has been a project of mine for a couple of decades. I've not succeeded. There are a few companies, Mistral in France, Helsing in Germany, the UK does better. There's a number of Scandinavian countries, you know the Scandinavians are particularly good at this. Most European structures are locked. I think the mechanical reason in Europe is the universities have much less money. There is a cultural angst about wealth. In Britain, it's called the tall poppy

[18:38](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1118) syndrome. And frankly, there's just not enough aggressive innovation. The regulators regulate before they innovate. My favorite example is that five years ago, Brussels wrote their AI strategy. I helped write the one for the US. And the US one said, run as fast as you can, align it with human values, and if bad things happen, fix them immediately, roughly. That's the summary. The Europeans wrote, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this.

[19:12](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1152) And you can't run startups in a limited market where there's a lot of rules like that all those people move to the u.s because talent moves and so europe needs so to be very precise what does europe need need to do you've got to allow for the innovation the animal spirits as in the words of adam smith you have to allow that capital formation occurs the funny thing about europe is the people are incredibly smart there's no educational lack there's no iq lack there's no motivation like it's the systemic change and europe has so far appears to me to be change resistant to the point where it's failing in this regard and that's a tragedy another example um these things these data centers are extremely energy hungry um europe has among the highest energy costs in the world. Okay, no problem. Do the training somewhere else.

[20:06](https://realalpha.app/v/U5YtR3OG5Uo/?t=1206) So again, there are ways of solving this problem. But until Europe takes the extraordinary human assets, the young men and women who can found these things and get them in the right place, Europe is going to continue to lose. And that's a tragedy because that means that US values as opposed to European values will dominate. An example would be that Europe does not have its own foundation model. There are people working on this, but doesn't have one. So if you as a European, if you want to make sure you get accurate European history, you're listening, you're looking at a US trained or a Chinese trained model, well, maybe they got it wrong. If I were you, I'd be annoyed, right? Your history matters, your language matters, your culture matters. I'd want to have control over that. In your book, Genesis, you warn that AI will reshape truth, politics,