Thread by @scienceisstrat1

Europe 🇪🇺 significantly lags the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳 as a tech power.

Data-rich 🧵 below on the economic consequences of tech stagnation for Europe’s prosperity and beyond (1/25)

Cc: @GerardAraud @Noahpinion @erikbryn @paulg

Europe 🇪🇺 is still a major R&D spender, but it was recently surpassed by China 🇨🇳 whose spending has skyrocketed in recent decades (2/25)

In key areas like maths and computing, European universities underperform their American (Stanford, MIT) and Chinese peers (Tsinghua, Harbin) (3/25)

In overall quality scientific publications, the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳 tower over European competitors 🇪🇺

(4/25)

In key areas like AI research, European researchers lag Chinese and American researchers (and many of the very best European scholars like @ylecun work in the US at institutions like NYU and Meta)

(5/25)

US Big Tech companies like Google and Microsoft dominate the publication of AI research.

No European tech company even comes close

(6/25)

In terms of AI funding, Europe 🇪🇺 is a distant third to the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳.

It’s not even close (7/25)

In terms of overall venture funding, the US 🇺🇸 towers over all other countries.

Europe’s large economies like France 🇫🇷 and Germany 🇩🇪 underperform given their size (8/25)

In terms of high performance computing, the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳 dominate with no European 🇪🇺 country even close (9/25)

Only one of the world’s top 10 tech companies is European 🇪🇺, ASML at number 10 (10/25)

In key new biotech areas like CRISPR, US 🇺🇸 and Chinese 🇨🇳 scientists dominate the publication of scientific research (11/25)

Europe’s 🇪🇺 overall corporate sector is being squeezed by American 🇺🇸 rivals (12/25)

Since 1990, European 🇪🇺 markets have also underperformed US 🇺🇸 and Chinese-connected 🇨🇳 markets (13/25)

Highly skilled immigrants also express preferences to move to the US 🇺🇸 (and UK 🇬🇧) ahead of all European 🇪🇺 countries by a wide margin (14/25)

This thread isn’t meant to gratuitously bash Europe.

Despite its relative decline as a tech power, Europe 🇪🇺 is still the dominant power in some traditional sectors like tourism ✈️ and luxury goods 👜

(15/25)

European tech companies like Airbus and ASML are genuinely world leading (16/25)

Europeans also have better performing health care systems than America as measured by traditional outcomes 🏥

And Europeans on average now live significantly longer 📈 than Americans do 📉

(17/25)

European 🇪🇺 cities are safer from violent crime than most large American 🇺🇸 cities, especially from gun violence (18/25)

Europe 🇪🇺 has taken climate change more seriously than other major powers (19/25)

And most European 🇪🇺 countries are more generous as a percentage of their national income than the US 🇺🇸 in giving foreign aid (20/25)

But the overall risk for Europe 🇪🇺 is that its prosperity and influence will continue to decline given how important technology is to economic vitality and competitiveness (21/25)

Slowing tech competitiveness has already contributed to lower levels of productivity growth and per capita income in Europe 🇪🇺 vs the U.S. 🇺🇸

(22/25)

The US 🇺🇸 economy and the Eurozone 🇪🇺 were roughly the same size in 2008.

The US is now nearly twice as big (as measured by current prices)

(23/25)

In fact, a Goldman Sachs forecast for 2075 predicts the world’s three largest economies will be China 🇨🇳, India 🇮🇳 and the U.S. 🇺🇸

No European 🇪🇺 country is even close (24/25)

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(25/25 - end thread!)