AI as a power and competitive factor: why Europe must act now

By Bernd Leukert, Chief Technology, Data and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Bank

We are living through a period of technological change that is reshaping our economic, regulatory and geopolitical environment at extraordinary speed. Much of what we once assumed to be stable about markets, competition and corporate governance is shifting.

For leaders and decision makers, this is not an abstract discussion. Technology has become a decisive factor in how value is created, how resilient institutions are, and how competitive Europe will be in the years ahead. The choices we make now will have long‑lasting consequences.

Three signals of a profound shift

Over recent months, three developments have stood out to me as particularly revealing.

First, the scale of investment.

We are witnessing what may be the largest technology investment wave of this century. Four US technology companies - Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft - plan to invest around USD 650 billion in 2026, primarily in data centres, AI infrastructure and chips. That figure exceeds the combined investment of entire traditional industries. This investment only deepens their leadership in this space.

Second, AI productivity drives share prices.

Only a short time ago, there was a widespread belief that AI would lift every technology company equally. That assumption has faded. Markets are now differentiating sharply between firms that talk about AI and those that can deploy it productively and at scale.

The assumption that all tech companies would benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) no longer holds true. Capital markets are increasingly distinguishing between companies that merely talk about AI and those that deploy it productively and at scale. Volatile share prices reflect this uncertainty.

Third, AI is redefining knowledge work.

Recent advances in generative and agent‑based AI show that these systems can now take on complex, multi‑step workflows such as legal analysis, software development and compliance processes that were long considered uniquely human. AI is no longer just accelerating tasks. It is beginning to reshape entire operating models across industries.

What this means for Europe and its industries

Taken together, these shifts point to three conclusions that matter deeply for European leaders.

More than ever, scale is a a geopolitical factor.

Training and operating advanced AI models requires vast amounts of data, chips, energy and infrastructure. Control over these fundamentals increasingly translates into economic and political influence.

Data‑intensive industries stand to gain the most.

Banking, insurance, healthcare and manufacturing sectors are defined by structured processes and high regulatory standards, offering the ideal conditions for productive AI deployment. Europe’s industrial base is rich in precisely these strengths. Used well, AI can deliver significant gains in efficiency, quality and resilience.

Competition is shifting from products to platforms and from platforms to infrastructure.

Cloud architectures, chips, foundation models and agent‑based workflows now form the industrial backbone of the digital economy. For Europe, digital infrastructure is becoming a strategic resource which is almost as important as energy or raw materials were in previous eras.

How Europe can respond

The good news is, Europe has unique strengths. It has strong regulatory frameworks that can act as a competitive advantage. In a world where AI increasingly influences credit decisions, compliance and risk management, trust is a differentiator. It has world‑class engineers and researchers, leading universities, deep industrial expertise and a large, sophisticated market. Global technology providers continue to invest heavily across the region, adapting their infrastructure to European standards on data protection and sovereignty.

And that leads to my final point: European sovereignty does not require the exclusion of global technology providers. Europe benefits when its companies can access best‑in‑class global cloud and AI solutions, under European rules and governance, while simultaneously strengthening its own capabilities. The objective is balance – using strategic partnerships to co-scale while investing in homegrown capabilities.