Incredible universities and a long history of AI research mean founders here are well positioned to build breakthrough AI companies. Julien Bek Partner, Sequoia Europe’s concentration of dedicated AI practitioners relative to its overall talent pool is 30% higher than in the US. This work- force is also highly educated, with 70% holding a Masters or PhD. Founders here can access the specialist skills they need to build and this talent’s not just in established hubs like London, Paris or Berlin - our research identi昀椀ed spikes of outlier talent in AI in Dublin, Zurich, Athens and Edinburgh to name just a few. AI investment de昀椀es the downturn AI has been at the heart of manifold discussions in the industry - and beyond - in 2023. Its elevation in public discourse, however, belies the fact that AI has been at the core of so many companies and so much invest- ment since well before the last decade. Generative AI, which has captured so much attention in 2023, is of course just a speci昀椀c branch of the much broader, overarching 昀椀eld of AI. Investment into AI in Europe is defying the broader downturn, with 2023 total investment on track to come close to, or perhaps even surpass, last year’s record-breaking amount of $8.7B. While investment into AI in Europe has grown massively over a 10-year period, total investment volumes are a long way off the levels seen in the US. Over the past 昀椀ve years, almost $35B has been invested into European AI companies, compared to more than $130B in US AI companies. While Europe is now consistently seeing rounds of investment of $100M or more, and even up to $0.5B, this pales in comparison with Microsoft’s $10B investment into OpenAI. 141 | Companies