Europe is no longer just reacting to the AI and quantum revolutions; it is shaping them. Under Horizon Europe’s 2023-2024 ‘digital, industrial and space work programme for research and innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies’, the European Commission (EC) invested over €100 million to fund AI and quantum projects [1]:
- €65 million to help develop AI technology that aligns with the AI Act and the European human-centric approach to AI
- €40 million to boost research into cutting-edge, world-leading quantum technologies to ensure Europe remains at the forefront of the global quantum technology race
- €7.5 million for projects that support European values and putting people at the centre of digital transformation, and increasing the EU’s influence in global ICT standardisation
Projects include the expansion of large AI model capabilities, developing robust and transparent AI systems, the creation of a pan-European network of quantum gravimeters (gravity sensors), and transnational research and development projects in the field of next-generation quantum technologies.
Additionally, pan-European infrastructures, such as the EuroHPC supercomputing network [2] and new Digital Skills Academies are creating the kind of environment that attracts and supports innovation and long-term talent retention.
So, while the United States and China vie for global dominance, Europe is quietly assembling the pieces for long-term technological leadership and creating ecosystems where the brightest minds want to work, teach, and build. But what’s behind this strategic shift, and why are global AI and quantum experts increasingly choosing Europe?
In this first of two articles on Europe becoming a magnet for AI and quantum talent, we will look into the investment and policy reforms taking place.
Strategic investment and policy leadership
Europe’s ascent in AI and quantum innovation is not accidental, it is the result of deliberate, coordinated public investment paired with bold policy reforms.
Over €1 billion annually in AI through Horizon Europe & Digital Europe
The EU’s flagship research programs, Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme, are pouring over €1 billion annually into AI across a wide array of initiatives, from foundational research to commercialisation support [4]. The strategy is simple, to build research ecosystems that compete globally, not by mimicking Silicon Valley, but by playing to Europe’s strengths in public infrastructure, regulation, and academic excellence.
Quantum Flagship & EuroHPC: Europe’s Quantum Engine
Launched in 2018, the Quantum Technologies Flagship, is Europe’s backbone for quantum research, to support the work of hundreds of quantum researchers over 10 years, with an expected budget of €1 billion from the EU [5].
With a total budget of €7 billion (2021-2027), the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) allows the EU and the EuroHPC JU participating countries to coordinate their efforts and pool their resources to make Europe a world leader in supercomputing. With 36 participating countries, this initiative has 57 research and innovation projects, 13 AI factories, 12 Supercomputers, and 10 Quantum computers working to boost Europe’s scientific excellence and industrial strength, and also provide training and R&D platforms accessible to both public and private actors.
The EU is currently working on a Quantum Strategy and Quantum Act to set the EU as a global leader in quantum technologies.
AI Continent Action Plan: Streamlining talent & mobility
The EU is committed and determined to become a global leader in AI. However, becoming a leading AI continent requires leadership both in developing and using AI. Launched in April 2025, the AI Continent Action Plan is a set of bold actions to achieve that goal with efforts concentrated in five key areas:
- Computing infrastructure
- Access to high-quality data
- Development and adoption of AI algorithms
- Improving skills
- Regulatory simplification
The Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, set out this vision at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025 when she announced InvestAI, an initiative to mobilise €200 billion for investment in AI in line with the political priorities of the Competitiveness Compass.
The AI Act: Making ethical AI a competitive advantage
As part of its digital strategy, the EU wanted to regulate AI to ensure better conditions for its development and use. The end result is the EU AI Act, which came into force in August 2024, and is the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for AI. It classifies AI use cases into risk tiers to ensure that AI systems used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly.
The EU AI Act aims to support AI innovation and start-ups in Europe, allowing companies to develop and test general-purpose AI models before public release. To do this, it requires national authorities to provide companies with a testing environment for AI that simulates conditions close to the real world, which will help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compete in the growing EU artificial intelligence market.
National Blueprints
At the national level, EU member states are backing up Brussels’ ambitions with robust domestic strategies.
In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Technology, and Innovation (BMFTR) has currently invested over €1.6 billion in AI to support the research, skills and infrastructure development, and application of AI. The AI Action Plan’s goal is to give new impetus to the German AI ecosystem, particularly its interface with education, science and research, and business.
France as invested €1 billion between 2021 and 2025 in its National Quantum Strategy, which embodies the country’s ambition to become a key player in quantum technologies. By uniting the efforts of the government, startups, manufacturers, and private investors, the aim of this strategy is to consolidate French leadership and catalyse the emergence of world-class industrial leaders by the end of the decade.
“With this plan, we intend to permanently establish France among the first circle of countries that have mastered quantum technologies. This is nothing less than a matter of gaining our sovereignty in this technological field that will shape the future.” (Emmanuel Macron – President of the Republic)
Meanwhile, Finland is set to lead a new project that integrates quantum technology into defence systems. Jointly coordinated by Finland’s Ministry of Defence and the VTT Technical Research Centre, the Quantum Enablers for Strategic Advantage project (QUEST) focuses on the use of quantum computing, sensing and metrology in areas such as encryption-breaking, positioning and air and missile defence.
Summary
AI and quantum computing are no longer moving on parallel tracks, they are starting to merge. Across Europe, researchers and policymakers are beginning to treat this convergence as more than just a buzzword, because together, they promise to tackle some of the hardest problems in science, industry, and society such as simulating new materials, and optimising global supply chains in ways classical computers simply cannot handle.
The message is clear: develop these technologies side by side, or risk falling behind. That’s why programs like Horizon Europe and the Quantum Technologies Flagship are starting to fund projects that bring AI engineers and quantum physicists into the same room, and why universities and startups alike are racing to explore the potential of quantum machine learning.
But what really sets Europe apart is not the tech. It is the vision. With the EU AI Act defining a human-centric approach to AI, and initiatives like the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) building a secure quantum backbone for digital infrastructure, Europe is carving out a distinct role: innovation with guardrails.
References
[2] https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/index_en
[5] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/quantum-technologies-flagship
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