Data suggests Europe is part of the AI boom, mainly in infrastructure

In short: Europe is not a top maker of AI models, but economic data suggests it is still benefiting from the AI boom through hardware, data centers, and growing business use.

What's going on

Europe often looks like it is falling behind the US and China in artificial intelligence. One reason is that Europe has a small share of the world’s computer chips, and only one of the world’s top large language models (AI systems trained on huge amounts of text, like very advanced autocomplete) is European.

But the Financial Times points to signs that Europe is still involved, especially in the physical buildout behind AI. In the Netherlands, machinery output was 43 percent higher in September than a year earlier, linked to ASML, a company that makes machines used to produce chips. The EU is also exporting more equipment used to power, cool, and run data centres (large buildings full of computers, like warehouses for the internet).

Some investment is happening inside Europe too. Goldman Sachs estimates the EU will represent about 10 percent of new global data centre capacity this year. There are also signs that spending on digital services, including software and intellectual property (legal ownership of ideas, like patents), has picked up, and some executives say AI has increased their company investment by about 10 percent.

What to watch

The growth impact so far looks modest. Goldman Sachs estimated the AI infrastructure boom added about 0.1 percentage points to European growth, and the ECB has pointed to small but real contributions from computers, electronics, and tech services since early 2025.

Another key question is who benefits financially. The article notes Europe is importing a lot of US software licences, enough to affect its trade balance. If those imported tools lead to higher productivity (getting more done with the same effort), Europe may gain even if it is not the main place where the AI tools are built.

Source: Financial Times