> You are aware that big corp from Silicon Valley have big offices in Europe ? E. g. Apple in Munich?

Its done for tax reasons and lobbying efforts, its used more as a weapon than for actual reasons.

Apple pays an effective tax rate of 5-6% on EU revenue and profits, while EU businesses pay much higher, this scenario is constantly used by big EU businesses like Seimens to get more tax credits and public grants while threatening germany from moving headquarters of company elsewhere. Apple having offices here pales in comparison to an EU owned tech giant granting great salaries, dividends to EU pension fund holders, instead they make American pension funds, income taxes get better, while EU companies cannot compete due to regulatory burden. Startups matter a lot, Apple started from a garage with 3 people.

China bought KUKA , the largest global robotics giant and a EU owned company, now it owns 100% has delisted the stock from EU exchange (so EU citizens with their pensions wont get the future profits and dividends generated by KUKA) AND China has said they are only committing to keeping those high tech EU jobs till 2025 after that they are moving all those jobs to Asia.

> India a significantly poorer country, [..] And YET they do better than Europe when it comes to Tech ? Why " citation needed

There are a lot of major Indian software companies paying america like salaries for their best talents (even without adjusting for purchasing power parity), most of these tech unicorns register their companies in Singapore or America so it doesnt show up, but in reality they are employing tons of Indians and driving innovation in that country. A lot of US stock exchange listed companies are in reality Indian businesses primarily employing Indians. It’s why such a small sector in terms of employment in India contributes 15% or higher in GDP growth to the 5th largest economy in the world. Even with all the disadvantages India has.

> But no one ever about GDPR. Its just a non-issue outside of AdTech.

Adtech is 98% revenue of Google and Facebook, both of them combined at their highest valuation were worth more than entire EU stock exchanges combined. Each of these “adtech companies” can buy out some of the major EU businesses in a heart beat.

I feel a lot of this feels like sports contest, you’re rooting for how team EU is so amazing, while I’m trying to show how its shooting itself in the foot.

We both want EU to win, but it’s not necessary to worship them, the policy makers are making a lot of decisions which will hurt EU for decades to come into the future.

EU has the power to be the tech and innovation capital of this world, with great colleges, minimal student debt, innovators not having to worry about outrageous healthcare costs for their family, allowing them to take more risks and going without a salary while working on their startups, yet EU continues to underperform and declines.

It’s because of government policies.

> Currently according to State of European Tech 2023 more people move from the US to Europe than vice versa.

Currently EU is also the #1 destination for illegal migrants and refugees. How many americans come to EU is meaningless. The net economic and strategic contributions of the ones who are leaving EU for USA vs vice versa is much more important.