Fueling Europe’s Digital Economy with €200bn AI-Driven Vision

With landmark initiatives announced to forge new frontiers in Europe’s digital sovereignty, including the €200bn AI pledge and unprecedented emphasis on quantum, cloud, semiconductors and data storage, a sense of urgency is sweeping across the continent to reimagine the status quo and reshape critical tech infrastructures.

Perfectly timed to harness Europe’s inherent innovation prowess and catapult its position
among leading digital economies is GITEX EUROPE x Ai Everything (21-23 May, Messe
Berlin). The world’s third largest economy and host nation for GITEX EUROPE x Ai
Everything, Germany’s role as the European economic and technology chieftain comes into
sharp focus, as transatlantic tensions ramp up in the race for global digital and AI leadership.
Germany’s ICT sector is projected to reach €232.8bn in 2025 (Statista).

GITEX EUROPE x Ai Everything, now emerging as Europe’s largest inaugural tech, startup
and digital investment event, is organised by KAOUN International and hosted in partnership
with the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, Germany’s
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Berlin Partner for Business and
Technology, and the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Franziska Giffey, Mayor of Berlin and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public
Enterprises said: “Partnering with one of the largest tech and startup global events and hosting
the debut of GITEX EUROPE in Berlin strengthens our commitment to solidifying Germany’s
position as a global magnet for investment and frontier-pushing technologies, spearheading
Europe’s edge in the next digital decade.”

Global Tech Openly Engages for Cross-Border, Cross-Industry Partnerships

The momentous first edition brings together over 1,400 big tech enterprises, startups and
SMEs, including platinum sponsors AWS and IBM, alongside Cisco, Cloudflare, Dell, Fortinet,
Lenovo, NTT, Nutanix, Nvidia, Opswat, and SAP, to forge consensus in new partnerships and
business outcomes for more agile, business-friendly, and responsible global digital systems.
GITEX EUROPE x Ai Everything shall present the most global tech and startup event with a
sterling lineup of tech companies from over 100 countries and 34 European states, including
tech pavilions from India, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, UK, UAE,
and more.

Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of KAOUN International, organiser of GITEX worldwide, shared: “Amid
the AI whirlwinds, there is a coordinated consensus and renewed urgency and unity across
Europe to assert its digital sovereignty and leadership as a global innovation force. The region is
paving its way as a centre-stage where AI, quantum and deep tech supremacy will be debated,
developed, and scaled, and GITEX EUROPE strategically hosted in this vantage nexus and watershed time in history shall define Europe’s technological future in an epoch where
leadership is earned through bold action and solidarity.”

Influential Global Leaders Address EU’s Critical Tech Crossroads

Over 500 global speakers – nearly half addressing the tech community for the first time on a
German tech stage – debate the new strategic priorities, from AI and quantum supremacy to
cloud and data sovereignty. Among the global headliners are Geoffrey Hinton, Physics Nobel
Laureate (2024), ‘Godfather of AI’, and the neural network pioneer who sparked worldwide
debate by questioning AI consequences; Kai Wegner, Mayor of Berlin; H.E. Jelena Begović,
Serbian Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation; António Henriques,
CEO, Bison Bank; Jager McConnell, CEO, Crunchbase; Mark Surman, President, Mozilla; and
Sandro Gianella, Head of Europe & Middle East Policy & Partnerships, OpenAI.

Europe’s Boldest Moves in AI, Deep Tech & Quantum

Europe is building its own AI frontier, focused on cross-sector use-cases, new investments and
international partnerships. Ai Everything Europe, the event’s flagship AI showcase and
conference, brings together one of the biggest convergences of AI architects, startups and
investors presenting the full scale, depth and global influence of AI ecosystems.
Influential AI experts address the sector’s most urgent topics on-stage, from EuroStack
ambitions to tangible implications of agentic AI, with speakers including Martin Kon, President
and COO, Cohere, the $5.5bn Canadian AI unicorn; Daniel Verten, Strategy Partner, Synthesia,
$2.1bn UK-based unicorn backed by Nvidia; and Prof. Dr. Antonio Krueger, CEO of German
Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Across the show-floor, diverse AI
breakthroughs come to life, from Brazil’s Ubivis presenting smart factories powered by IoT and
Digital Twins to Hexis’ AI-driven nutrition trusted by 500+ Olympic and elite athletes.
With nearly €7 billion in quantum investment, second only to China, Europe is accelerating its
push for quantum leadership by 2030. GITEX Quantum Expo (GQX), in partnership with IBM
and QuIC – Europe’s largest quantum industry association, dives into advanced quantum
research and cross-industry impact with exclusive showcases and conferences. Speakers
include Mira Wolf-Bauwens, Responsible Quantum Computing Lead, IBM Research,
Switzerland; Joachim Mnich, Director of Research & Computing, CERN, Switzerland; Neil
Abroug, Head of the French National Quantum Strategy, INRIA; and Jan Goetz, CEO & Co-
Founder, IQM Quantum Computers, Finland.

Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, Vice President Europe and Africa and Director IBM Research
Zurich said: “IBM’s investments in AI and quantum computing directly reflect our commitment to
Europe, and underscore the key role of collaboration with industry, academia and policymakers
for a pan-European ecosystem. These state-of-the-art technologies and facilities will foster
innovation, creating new opportunities for talent attraction and ensuring that Europe will always
be at the forefront of global technological advancements.”
Cyber Valley: Building A United Resilient Cyber Frontline

With cloud breaches doubling and AI-driven attacks complicating the equation, threat response
and cyber resilience is a core focus at the event. Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Kaspersky, Knowbe4,
Proofpoint join a host of leading cyber companies exhibiting at GITEX Cyber Valley, alongside
law enforcement leaders, global CISOs, and policymakers on-stage, including Brig. Gen. Dr.
Volker Pötzsch, Chief of Division Cyber/IT & AI, Federal Ministry of Defence, Germany; H.E. Dr.
Mohamed Al-Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity, UAE Government; Miguel De Bruycker, Managing
Director General, Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium; and Ugo Vignolo Lutati, Group CISO,
Prada Group.

GITEX Green Impact: Advancing Climate Imperatives for a Sustainable Future

GITEX Green Impact connects the real accelerators of the green transition – innovators and
investors – with over 100 startups and investors exploring how green hydrogen, bioenergy, and
next-gen energy storage are moving from R&D to deployment. Key speakers are Gavin Towler,
Chief Scientist for Sustainability Technologies & CTO, Honeywell; Julie Kitcher, Chief
Sustainability Officer, Airbus; Lisa Reehten, Managing Director, Bosch Climate Solutions;
Massimo Falcioni, Chief Competitiveness Officer, Abu Dhabi Investment Office; and Mounir
Benaija, CTO – EV & Charging Infrastructure, TotalEnergies.

Convening the Largest and Best Global Startup Ecosystem Amongst 60+ Nations
GITEX EUROPE x Ai Everything launches North Star Europe, the debut edition of the world’s
largest startup event (Expand North Star), gathering over 750 startups and 20 global unicorns –
Qonto, Flutterwave, reMarkable, TransferMate, Solarisbank AG, Bolt, Flix, and Glovo.
The event features a curated international collection of early and growth-stage startups from
Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, UK, UAE
and more. Among the top startups, Neurocast.ai (Netherlands) advancing AI-powered
neurotech for Alzheimer’s research, CloudBees (Switzerland) – the delivery unicorn backed by
Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Lightspeed, and Semiqon (Finland), the world’s first CMOS
transistor with the ability to perform in cryogenic conditions.

Scouting new funding opportunities will be over 600 investors with $1tn assets under
management (AUM), including Germany’s Earlybird VC, Austria’s SpeedInvest, Switzerland’s
B2Venture, Estonia’s Startup Wise Guys, and USA’s SOSV. GITEX ScaleX launches as a first-
of-its-kind growth platform for scale-ups and late-stage companies, in partnership with AWS.
With SMEs making up 99% of European businesses, GITEX SMEDEX connects SMEs with
international trade networks and investors, for funding, legal advisory and market access to
scale innovations globally. Backed by EISMEA and ICC Digital Standards Initiative, the event
features key SME ecosystem leaders advising on stage, including Milena Stoycheva,
Chairperson of Board of Innovation, Ministry of Innovation and Growth, Bulgaria; and Oliver
Grün, President, European Digital SME Alliance and BITMi; among others.

GITEX EUROPE is part of the GITEX global network tech and startup events, taking place in
Germany, Morocco, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand, and the UAE.

For more information, please visit: www.gitex-europe.com.