Mark Bergen
Senior Reporter; Moderator
Sessions (2)
Sessions featuring Mark Bergen at Bits & Pretzels 2026 | Founders Festival in Munich
Who Owns Europe’s AI Future?
Europe’s AI future, as framed in the opening, depends on whether the region can stop being “a customer of everything” and build enough technical, corporate, and narrative momentum to shape its own outcomes. The video set a deliberately urgent tone: Europe cannot rely on China for equipment, America for compute, and America for military capability while expecting to control its strategic future. It also argued that Europe has ambitious young technical talent and needs stronger stories that give people something to look forward to. The panel was then positioned as a discussion among investors, builders, and storytellers about who owns AI in Europe now and who could own it next. The introductions grounded that question in specific European tech actors. Andreas Klinger was introduced as the former CTO of Product Hunt, founder of PROTOTYPE, and initiator of EU Inc, pushing for a single pan-European company structure. Judith Dada was introduced as German Investor of the Year, a Personio board member, co-CEO of Langdock, and co-author of “Europe 2031,” a scenario about Europe sliding into AI irrelevance. Rana Yared of Balderton was connected to Munich companies including Quantum Systems, while Maex Ament was introduced as a serial European founder now building the AI company Causa Prima. Moderator Mark Bergen opened by asking not who should own Europe’s AI future, but who owns AI in Europe today. Judith answered by separating the “realistic” and “aspirational” answers. Realistically, too much control over compute, chips, and models sits with the US and China. Aspirationally, she argued that the European Union is the world’s second largest economy and is built on transformational companies that have endured for long periods. In her view, Europe’s AI future will be owned by companies that successfully transform their businesses for the new age and carry their value creation forward into European GDP. Maex agreed that Europe has lost ground in frontier models, hardware, and data centers, but saw a large opportunity in the application layer, especially enterprise software and enterprise adoption. Andreas sharply challenged that view, saying the application layer is highly overrated because foundational model companies may generate the next wave of teams in science, medicine, material science, and other industries. Rana reframed the frontier-lab debate: rather than copying generalist US labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI, she argued Europe’s edge may lie in specific foundational models for sectors where Europe already leads, including industrial AI, robotics, healthcare, material science, and chemistry. The supplied transcript ends while the panel is still exploring that distinction between applications, generalist frontier labs, and sector-specific foundational AI.
Cage Fight: PE vs VC. Who wins?
The core message of the provided session excerpt is that venture capital and private equity are no longer as cleanly separated as they were a decade ago, but they still differ in what kinds of risk they are built to underwrite. The moderator framed VC as historically upside-focused and power-law driven, while PE was described as more downside-avoidant, seeking moderate upside in more controllable businesses. The panel then positioned the current market as one where boundaries are blurring: private equity has moved into growth and multi-stage platforms, while venture firms have raised growth and opportunity funds and are writing larger checks into later-stage companies. The shared value proposition across both sides was “partnership” with founders, but at different stages and with different tools.