In Europe, there's been a lot of handwringing over why there are very few large, successful tech companies in the region. Peter Steinberger, the creator of the agentic AI hit OpenClaw, has an answer.
Steinberger was recently hired by OpenAI and is moving from Europe to the US. An Austrian by birth, he previously split his time between London and Vienna.
On X, a professor from a European university asked why Europe couldn't retain this tech talent.
Steinberger replied that most people in the US are enthusiastic, while in Europe, he's scolded about responsibility and regulations.
If he built a company in Europe, he would struggle with strict labor regulations and similar rules, he added.
At OpenAI, he said most employees work 6 to 7 days a week and are paid accordingly. In Europe, that would be illegal, he added.
The most valuable company in Europe is Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML, valued at about $550 billion. In contrast, there are 10 US companies worth more than $1 trillion. Most of these are tech companies.
In 2024, a landmark EU report found that the region had fallen behind the US, particularly in innovation. It proposed a series of changes to tackle the problem, but by the end of 2025, few of the recommendations had been implemented.
Steinberger said he was hopeful about EU INC, an effort to create a single corporate legal framework to make it simpler to run a business across the region.
But this seems to be "fizzling out," he wrote on X. "Watered down, too much egoistic national interest that ultimately hurts everyone."
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