Speaking at the Techarena conference in Stockholm on Thursday, top executives from US tech giants Meta and Google ripped into Europe’s AI Act and GDPR, blaming them for delays, compliance nightmares, and Europe’s struggles to stay competitive in AI.
Chris Yiu, Meta’s public policy chief, said, “There is now broad consensus that European regulation around technology has its issues. And the result is products get delayed or watered down. European consumers lose.”
Big Tech says EU is regulating AI on an outdated timeline
Meta’s Yiu didn’t just talk—he showed the problem. Holding up Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses, he explained to the conference audience how the smart eyewear, designed to translate speech in real-time and describe images for the visually impaired, took months longer to launch in Europe than in other regions.
“This is a profound and human application of AI, yet we had to delay it in Europe because of regulatory hurdles,” Yiu said. Meta only rolled out AI features for the glasses in some European countries in November 2023, after months of legal wrangling to comply with the EU’s regulatory framework.
The GDPR—Europe’s sweeping data privacy law—also slowed things down. Meta said it had to figure out how to legally use Instagram and Facebook user data to train its AI models without violating GDPR.
Dorothy Chou, head of public policy at Google DeepMind, came to the Techarena conference armed with her own criticisms. She said:
“The AI Act was drafted in April 2021. OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. That tells you everything you need to know,” Chou said. “You can’t regulate AI with outdated rules. The tech moves too fast.”
She pointed to the US Inflation Reduction Act as an example of a policy that actually works for businesses. Unlike the AI Act, which focuses on restrictions, Chou said US regulations encourage investment and innovation. “There is a way to use policy to create a better investment environment while still ensuring responsible AI development,” she said.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, told Politico earlier this week that the EU’s new AI Code of Practice—which applies to general-purpose AI models like OpenAI’s GPT—is “a step in the wrong direction.”
Speaking at a company event in Brussels on Monday, Meta’s newly appointed global affairs chief, Joel Kaplan, took it a step further, saying Meta won’t sign the Code in its current form. He slammed the EU for piling on extra compliance requirements that aren’t even in the AI Act itself.
And now, Trump’s administration is backing them up. At the international AI Action Summit in Paris last week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance blasted Europe for being too heavily focused on regulating artificial intelligence rather than embracing the technology’s growth potential.
It’s not just Big Tech that’s fed up with Europe’s AI regulations. Investors and startup founders are sounding the alarm too, all basically saying the compliance burden is killing European AI startups before they even get a chance to scale.
One proposed solution is the “28th regime”, a legal framework that would allow companies to operate under EU-wide rules instead of dealing with 27 different national laws.
Industry leaders like Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus are backing the effort. They want EU lawmakers to create a single AI-friendly legal structure so startups can focus on building, not navigating compliance nightmares.
Luke Pappas, partner at NEA, reportedly told CNBC that one of the biggest problems in Europe is how hard it is to attract talent. Hiring across multiple EU countries is a bureaucratic mess, and giving equity to employees across borders is a nightmare.
“The process of giving equity across borders in Europe is not easy,” Pappas said. “If we can standardize it, that will dramatically help.”
European AI stocks outperform
European tech giants are outpacing expectations this quarter, joining finance and health care as the best-performing sectors of the earnings season.
Fueled by surging artificial intelligence demand, the technology sub-sector in the MSCI Europe Index posted 5.5% earnings growth in Q4—a huge jump from the pre-season estimate of just 0.5%. The broader MSCI Europe Index also beat forecasts, delivering 1.1% per-share earnings growth instead of the expected 1.3% decline.
Tech’s rapid rise is new territory for European markets, where pharma and banking have traditionally led earnings growth. But while analysts see upward momentum, they also warn of potential hurdles ahead.
Analysts say U.S. tariffs, weakening demand for electric vehicles, and economic slowdowns in China and Europe could limit further gains.
Chipmakers like Infineon and STMicro are expected to take the biggest hit from tariff pressures, while ASML could see a trickle-down effect if semiconductor demand weakens.
“If there’s lower demand for chips because of tariffs, semiconductor companies may not buy as much equipment, but it’s a second-order problem for ASML,” said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.
Despite the risks, some tech stocks are still investor favorites ahead of earnings reports. Bank of America sees pullbacks as a buying opportunity, especially for AI-driven stocks like Nvidia, Workday, Dell, and Marvell Technology.
Nvidia’s earnings report looms large
Nvidia’s stock has dropped more than 4% over the past month, but analysts remain bullish.
“The next big test for AI bulls comes on February 26, when Nvidia reports Q4 earnings,” said BofA analyst Vivek Arya.
While Nvidia’s stock has been volatile, Arya sees major long-term catalysts, including its pipeline of new AI products and expansion into robotics and quantum computing, set to be discussed at its upcoming GTC conference.
“The quarterly report should have enough earnings per share substance, even if there’s less sizzle,” Arya said.
Marvell Technology is another AI stock analysts are eyeing. The company is set to report fiscal Q4 earnings in early March, and expectations are high.
“AI visibility is improving for FY26/27 as cloud spending continues to rise, and Marvell’s custom silicon pipeline remains strong,” Arya noted. He also pointed to the company’s June 10 Investor Day, where he expects Marvell to raise its near-term AI revenue target to $8 billion.
Dell is set to report FQ4 earnings on February 27, with discussions expected to focus on AI server demand and potential delays for Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU.
“The AI server segment could face short-term challenges, but we see this as transitory,” analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote. “As Dell begins fulfilling AI server demand, revenue and margins should strengthen.”
Despite adjusting his price target down to $150 from $155, Mohan remains long-term bullish on Dell, whose stock has climbed 45% over the past year.
Workday, meanwhile, is positioned for growth in enterprise applications. Analysts believe its topline growth rate has bottomed at 14%, with potential upside as enterprise spending recovers.
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