Palantir (PLTR) head of U.K. and Europe Louis Mosley warned that the region is making the same mistake with artificial intelligence (AI) that it made with the internet.
Where the U.S. “got the internet right,” built a score of businesses and became the backbone of the digital economy, Europe “missed the boat,” Mosley told CoinDesk in an interview.
The divergence between the markets in the decades since has been stark. Europe and the U.S. were roughly comparable 20 years ago on GDP per capita, capital-market depth and the scale of their largest companies. Since then, the U.S. has compounded growth while Europe has barely advanced in comparison.
Previous technology waves produced European champions. The internet wave produced almost none, with ASML (ASML) the rare exception, he said.
“It’s by far and away the largest European company. Which is, it tells you that the value is in tech,” he said.
Mosley, Palantir’s executive vice president for the U.K and Europe, argued AI will be even more consequential. European corporates remain cautious, with an attitude of “This is new, that means it could be risky. I’ll wait and see,” according to Mosley.