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Technology summit in Heilbronn: Europe's digital future in focus!
TECH conference in Heilbronn on May 26, 2025: Experts discuss Europe's technological independence from the USA and AI innovations.
Technology summit in Heilbronn: Europe's digital future in focus!
Last weekend, an important TECH conference took place in Heilbronn that dealt with the technological future of Europe. The event, organized by the Handelsblatt Media Group and Schwarz Digits, attracted top-class experts from politics, business and science. The prominent guests included Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche and Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, who emphasized the importance of the topics of artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing. These technology fields are crucial to strengthening Europe's position in the global technology landscape, especially given its dependence on American technology.
One of the key voices at the conference was Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook from Harvard University, who called for more urgency in establishing European independence in technology issues. In her presentation, Ann Mettler, an expert in technology policy, advocated for a capital markets union that would help reduce technology investment costs in Europe. Their appeal for close cooperation was well received in order to alleviate competitive pressure from the USA and China.
European innovation strategies
The EU's plans to become an independent superpower in the field of artificial intelligence by 2030 were seen as promising at the conference. Currently, about 70% of the world's leading AI models come from the US, which is seen by many participants as a strategic bottleneck. To counteract this, the EU is planning to build five gigafactories, which will be equipped with an investment volume of around 20 billion euros in order to significantly increase computing power in Europe. This was described by the online platform Techzeitgeist as a crucial step towards developing powerful AI systems locally.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU's Digital Commissioner, emphasized the need for a collaborative innovation culture in Europe. She noted that the potential within Europe's startups and research communities is enormous, but has so far been hampered by a lack of powerful data centers and computing capacity. The new gigafactories should therefore offer at least four times the capacity of conventional AI factories. The biggest focus is on creating a data union by 2030 that enables the secure exchange of data within Europe.
Challenges and opportunities
Despite the positive views, there are also skeptics who question the viability of the EU AI strategy. The challenge of competing with the US and China is compounded by political disunity and limited resources. Nevertheless, the success of the planned measures remains crucial for the entire European economy. Digital Commissioner Virkkunen sees the creation of a data union as an opportunity to promote European values and reduce technological dependencies, which critics note as a necessary step to overcome dependence on external suppliers, particularly in the area of high-performance chips.
In this context, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa warned at the conference of the danger of a factless world and criticized social media for the spread of false news. Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister, appealed for European cohesion and emphasized that now is the time to develop one's own strengths and maintain technical sovereignty.
The conference in Heilbronn not only highlighted current challenges, but also numerous opportunities in the European technology landscape. It makes it clear that the path to greater independence and innovation in technology requires a joint effort by all European nations.