March 16, 2026
State of AI in Europe – The Invisible Giant
Europe's role in the AI revolution, and how to capitalize on its role as a leading power in the new age of innovation. New report in collaboration with Prosus.
Key findings
- VC funding into European AI startups reached a record $21.8B in 2025, up 58% from $13.9B in 2024 and nearly 10x the $2.3B invested in 2016.
- Old economy employers hold 48% of Europe's AI talent against 33% in the US, while digital-native tech companies employ 35% in Europe and 54% in the US.
- Europe has 133M monthly active LLM users against 61M in the US, but only 3 notable AI models against 33, so the bigger AI audience runs on models built elsewhere.
- Europe put $12B into late-stage AI rounds in 2025 against $141B in the US, a 12x gap, after near parity at early stage of $4B versus $5B.
- Europe and the US each create about 900 new VC-backed AI startups a year, yet the US has produced 56 AI decacorns to Europe's 9.
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Selected charts
Companion charts derived from this report — open any chart in full-screen on the right side.
Europe dominates AI x Energy funding with 49.5% global share but captures only 3% in foundational models
Share of global VC funding by region across key AI segments, 2023–2025
48% of Europe's AI Talent Works in Old Economy vs 33% in the US
Distribution of ~325K AI professionals by employer type, Europe vs US
Europeans Use LLMs 2x More Than Americans — 133M vs 61M Monthly Users
Monthly average users of LLMs by platform, Jul 2024 – Sep 2025
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