{"text":[[{"start":5.72,"text":"As America and China vie to win the AI race, the EU seems unable to make it on to the running track. Its woes include an energy shock, fiscal strain, pressure from Chinese competition and chronic uncompetitiveness. But look a little more closely, and the AI boom is showing up in European data. The bloc is much more than a passive spectator to someone else’s sport."}],[{"start":26.543,"text":"It is true that Europe is nowhere near winning a top AI producer medal. Its tiddly share of the world’s chips mirrors the fact that of the 64 top large language models, just one is European. Some imagine the EU might catch up by spending roughly €800bn over three years to build a frontier model. A bit like how I dream of becoming an Olympic sprinter as I plod around Parkrun."}],[{"start":49.252,"text":"Still, Europe is involved in the global AI boom, not least in building its physical infrastructure. This is showing up in pockets of production and trade data. In September, machinery output in the Netherlands was 43 per cent higher than a year ago, spurred on by the success of chip-machine maker ASML. EU exports that are used to power, cool and operate data centres have been growing speedily too, helped by several of Europe’s industrial giants."}],[{"start":75.284,"text":"Some of the new AI-related investment is happening within the EU. The region will account for around 10 per cent of new global data centre capacity this year, according to Goldman Sachs. More broadly, digital services investment, including in software and intellectual property, has accelerated in the euro area over the past couple of years, while corporate executives report that, on average, AI has boosted their capital spending by 10 per cent."}],[{"start":101.92,"text":"Admittedly, none of this adds up to blistering growth. Goldman Sachs estimated that the AI infrastructure boom had boosted European growth by around 0.1 percentage points. European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane last month pointed to the high share of recent growth in market production coming from computers, electronics and ICT services. This amounted to a total of 0.6 per cent since the start of 2025. But look, in this region, every little helps."}],[{"start":129.76,"text":"As well as making the AI, Europeans are increasingly using it. Indeed, they have imported so much in software licensing from the US that it appears to have dented the euro area’s current account surplus. This feeds into anxiety over who will reap the gains from this new technology. In the US, the familiar discussion is over the share of income flowing to labour or capital. As Lane pointed out to me in an episode of our FT podcast, in Europe’s case the share going to foreign exporters matters too."}],[{"start":161.699,"text":"The anxiety would be lessened if all those imported software licences were to generate productivity gains. If so, then the European fantasy of revelling in the glory of AI without having to sweat over building the darn thing could become a reality. So far there are some signs of unusually high productivity growth in ICT services, according to Capital Economics. But otherwise AI’s positive effects are relatively hard to spot."}],[{"start":188.877,"text":"Perhaps it’s too early for visible efficiency gains, in which case checking European AI adoption might be a better signal of what is coming. Despite the continent’s reputation as a laggard, a new survey from the European Investment Bank suggests that the share of European corporate executives reporting that their company is using AI is actually pretty similar to the share in America. Though the Americans are more intense about it, being more likely to report use across multiple areas of the business — and that they expect the biggest benefit to be sales and revenue growth. (Europeans are more likely to say cost reductions and efficiency.)"}],[{"start":225.305,"text":"Some research suggests that the narrative of a static Europe could be holding some companies back. When surveyed, European executives underestimate how much their peers are investing in AI. When told how much their competitors in other countries are spending, they react with a shrug. But when told about rivals within the same country, they raise their estimates of AI investment plans."}],[{"start":247.619,"text":"So if I were in the position of a coach, I wouldn’t dismiss the Europeans as passive spectators to the AI race. They may not be on track to become Olympic medallists, but they are limbering up. And with a little more exertion — and perhaps a pep talk — I would encourage them to defy their sluggish reputation. To repeat: every little helps."}],[{"start":269.92,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794554186_3946.mp3"}