If Silicon Valley is the best place to learn about AI and its Big Tech executives, Brussels is the best place to understand technology policy and, increasingly, how AI is shaping startups. It’s a great place to figure out how to scale it.
This week, Microsoft felt the long arm of Europe’s technology competition authorities. In what seemed like a distant past, the world’s largest company by market capitalization has decided to discontinue bundling its Teams apps and Office software globally. The decision comes after the company unbundled its products in Europe last year and ahead of EU antitrust laws.
But there are other lessons for tech companies to learn from Brussels and Belgium more broadly.
of financial times Last week, Belgium reported for the first time that Belgium was among the 10 most represented countries in the ranking of Europe’s 1,000 Fastest Growing Companies, led by BeInfluence Europe, Logistics Capital Partners and Techwolf.
The ranking shows that Italy, considered an economically underdeveloped country with many older CEOs, has the fastest growing companies in Europe, ahead of Britain, Germany and France. The Italian cohort is led by Bidbury, The Sense Experience Resort and WECO.
Belgium and Italy’s surprising advantage lies in the assumption that the AI era will be a “winner-takes-all” business environment, where only giants like Microsoft, Alphabet, and other “Magnificent Seven” technology companies will succeed. It overturns it. In contrast to the large multinational corporations common in other parts of Europe, companies in Belgium and Italy are typically small to medium-sized enterprises.
I spoke to Jürgen Ingels, founder and financier of several of Belgian’s fastest-growing technology companies, including payments company Clear2pay and game developer Crazygames, about his (and my) country’s success. I asked for an explanation. He pointed to the classic building blocks: an out-of-the-way government and entrepreneurs who create not just one company but an entire startup ecosystem.
And he talked about how AI is enabling startups to scale at an unprecedented pace.
“The business model is changing,” he says. “I see tech companies with 10, 20, 30 employees and high EBITDA automating their back offices. It’s not about capital anymore. It’s about creativity. That’s what’s interesting. You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley anymore.”
On a related note, if you don’t buy into the AI hype cycle, check out Jon Stewart’s segment on “AI’s False Promises” on Monday. This comedian doesn’t believe in the dominant theories about corporate AI, and he cites people from Satya Nadera to Sam Altman to make fun of those like me who do.
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Peter Vanham
Peter.vanham@fortune.com
@Peter Vanham
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