Europe has fallen behind China and the U.S. in the development of AI capacity, producing less than 1% of the world’s semiconductors needed for AI. But the EU hopes to produce 20% of the world’s semiconductors by 2030.

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Europe is currently trailing behind the US and China in the artificial intelligence (AI) race, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing. Despite the European Union's CHIPS Act aiming for a 20% share of the global semiconductor market by 2030, progress has been slow, with Europe producing only about 8% of the world's semiconductors and less than 1% suitable for AI applications.

At the Vivitec technology conference in Paris, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the opportunities for Europe to leverage its strengths in manufacturing and science to advance in AI. Nvidia, now valued at $4 trillion, is planning to address Europe's processing power gap by establishing 20 new AI factories across the continent, utilizing advanced chips like the Blackwell Ultra. Nvidia executives emphasized that combining Europe's industrial expertise with AI could help the region catch up in the global technology landscape.

Nvidia wants Europe to catch up in the AI race

Europe is falling further behind in the AI race. While China and the US pour billions into infrastructure and innovation, here in Europe the chips are down, slipping further behind with each passing year. Now the EU is pinning their hopes on the CHIPS Act, aiming to claim 20% of the global semiconductor market by 2030. But across the continent, one question echoes, louder by the day, is this the start of Europe's comeback or simply a last-ditch fantasy? I'm Anna Stewart and this is Marketplace Europe. This month we're in Paris for Vivitec, Europe's biggest stage for technology and innovation. From scrappy start-ups to international CEOs, this is where Europe can prove what it's made of in the technology world and show where it's headed next. Oh that's very cool, this is like Minority Report, look, I can control the image with my hand. Hi Leonardo, I'm Anna from CNN, how are you? Anna from CNN, it is a pleasure to hear from you, I find myself quite loyal, thank you for asking. I've been going to Vivitec for the last six years, and this year, walking around the conference floor, it's clear the focus is shifting fast, where robotics once ruled, now even the flashy displays have taken a back seat, as AI and computer processing claim centre stage. Semiconductors and microchips are the building blocks for our digital world. In each chip, you can have billions of microscopic transistors, creating circuits of computing far smaller than a single human hair. The more transistors you can pack onto a single chip, the more powerful and efficient it becomes, driving everything from smartphones to supercomputers. According to a recent McKinsey report, Europe produces only around 8% of the world's semiconductors and less than 1% of those are suitable for AI. And while the 2023 EU Chips Act attempted to launch a boom in digital infrastructure, those hopes have not yet materialised, and critics are doubtful that the goal of a 20% share by 2030 is still feasible. Amid the sea of computing giants here at Vivitec, one name is dominating headlines in 2025. This month, NVIDIA became the first publicly traded company in the world to be valued at $4 trillion. And as part of a charm offensive across Europe, CEO Jensen Huang has stopped here in Paris to give a keynote speech alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. One of the great opportunities for Europe is that this region has deeply invested in manufacturing and megatronics technology and industrials. It's deep in science, it's deep in manufacturing. And finally AI is able to understand the physical world, you know, has to understand things like inertia and gravity and cause and effect and, you know, and those kind of sensibility that we have about the laws of physics and the physical world, AI is now starting to develop. And so we could use the AI for manufacturing automation, robotics automation, and expand the workforce, expand the work capability, the labour capability of each country and region. And so I think this is going to be just a fantastic opportunity. President Macron yesterday said he would like chips to be made here in France. Will you be doing that? NVIDIA's first chip was made here in France. NVIDIA's first chip was made at the foot of the Alps. Why aren't you making more chips in Europe at the moment? Well, the reason for that, Europe kind of lost interest in building advanced chips. It wasn't because we stopped building it here, it's just Europe for a long time lost some interest in doing so. And it's quite a significant endeavour to go back to make these advanced chips. And you know, I think that the good news is that you have AI technology to invest in now. And I would invest in AI technology, you know, with full force because it's so consequential to all the industries. Alongside Huang on this tour of Europe's biggest economies is David Hogan, heading up NVIDIA's enterprise team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. You have been on something of a global blitz. NVIDIA has been to the UAE, to Saudi, and of course this week the UK and France. What's the strategy here? Well, clearly we were at the start of this AI revolution, we enabled this AI revolution working with some great scientists around the world. So we want everyone to take advantage of that. There's no doubt that Europe was left behind. But I think this is the opportunity for Europe because we've gone through that phase of building these large language models. But actually the next phase is called post-training. This is where you give the AI a problem and you try and solve that problem and it's for an industry. And that's really the opportunity for Europe. Industrial revolution started here. We have some great companies with some really amazing data, some IP. And combine that with AI gives a huge opportunity for Europe to suddenly turbocharge itself and catch up. Right now, Europe's biggest tech shortcoming is a lack of processing power or compute. NVIDIA hopes to fill that gap with 20 new AI factories across the continent, fuelled by high-performance chips like the Blackwell Ultra. OK, look at this. You've got four Blackwell Ultra GPUs. Now, these are the most advanced GPUs NVIDIA makes in terms of artificial intelligence. But you don't just have the four GPUs because you actually put it into a rack like this. This gives you a total of 72. And in an AI factory or a data centre, you might have over 100 of these, giving you an extraordinary amount of compute. If you're a data scientist, you work in AI, if you don't have a machine, there's nothing to work on. The selling point is access to AI. So lots of different countries are all leaning in. They see the need. The lack is the recipe to make it successful, and that's why we're here.

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Nvidia wants Europe to catch up in the AI race

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Rise of AI