欧洲深度科技引擎或可推动万亿美元经济增长

By investing in deep-techbusiness building,Europe’sstart-up ecosystem could This report is a collaborative effort byHannes Erntell, Markus Berger-de León, Max Flötotto,Stéphane Bout, Tobias Henz,andTunde Olanrewaju,withCeren Safak Musai,representing views Confidential and proprietary. Any use ofthis material without specific permission ofMcKinsey & Company is strictly prohibited. Copyright © 2025 McKinsey & Company.All rights reserved.Cover image © Oselote/Getty Images For decades,Europe has lagged behind the United States when it comes to creating billion-dollar technology companies—and has also clocked lower GDP growth. But now it stands on theprecipice of opportunity. Europe could become a global leader in launching and growing deep-tech Europe has many strengths: a highly educated workforce, world-class research institutions, adeep industrial base, and predictable legal environments. It also faces several unique barriers:fragmented geographic markets, limited growth capital, a lack of regulatory harmonization, and fewglobal scale-up success stories that inspire serial entrepreneurship. Our research shows that if theEuropean start-up ecosystem—composed of companies, governments, investors, and research For the purposes of this report, we define deep-tech companies as those that turn technologicalbreakthroughs into scalable, value-generating businesses to solve societal problems. We classifydeep-tech companies into eight categories: advanced materials and nanotechnology; biotech, foodtech, and agtech; defense tech; future of compute; novel AI; novel energy; robotics; and space tech. Now is the time for Europe to ride the deep-tech wave. Momentum in this sector has already been building in Europe for several years, with both corporate and venture capital investors fundingmany new deep-tech businesses. Accelerated technology development in the past few years,spurred by AI, also highlights Europe’s value creation potential. And amid today’s trade and tariffuncertainty, European countries have a window of opportunity to createregional economic growth The road won’t be easy. Founders, academics, government officials, industry leaders, and investors willneed to collaborate to create a supportive ecosystem that provides the funding, networks, and regulatorysupport that deep-tech businesses need to scale. This ecosystem must also be self-perpetuating; toooften in the past, deep-tech companies that launched in Europe have ended up scaling in the United Today’s European start-up ecosystem can learn from earlier missteps, having failed to produce asignificant number of leading global companies during past technological waves, such as cloud,software-as-a-service (Saas), and e-commerce. Building deep-tech winners will require all actorsin the start-up ecosystem to take risks and make bold bets on the future. If the European start-up In this report, we present an in-depth analysis of where the European deep-tech sector is today—and where it could go tomorrow if European countries follow a road map to accelerate growth.Success will require close collaboration between players in the start-up ecosystem, includingventure capitalists and entrepreneurs, and the broader deep-tech community of researchers and What deep tech is—and what it isn’t Deep techis a dynamic and ever-evolvingsector in which some technologies thatwere once considered cutting edge arenow becoming mainstream. We define toward technology development, often —robotics:humanoid robots,nanorobotics —Founding teams with advancedtechnical backgrounds.Deep-techventures are typically founded byindividuals with strong technicalbackgrounds, often rooted in academiaor corporate R&D. The demandingnature of the sector creates high —space tech:launch, earth observation,in-space manufacturing, nanosatellites, We also further define deep-techcompanies as having five key —advanced materials andnanotechnology:green concrete, —Focus on large-scale breakthroughsor pressing societal challenges.Deep tech fundamentally aims todeliver breakthrough scientific or —biotech, food tech, and agtech:synthetic biology, lab-grown food,AI-enabled drug discovery, fertilizers —defense tech:cybersecurity, drones —Significant funding requirements.Initiatives in deep tech generallydemand big initial commitments fromlarge and often specialized investors. —future of compute:quantumcomputing, ambient computing, —Global scope.Deep-tech venturestypically operate on an international —novel AI:autonomous systems,explainable AI, privacy-enhancing —High R&D intensity.Ventures indeep tech have a distinct life cyclecharacterized by intense early-stage —novel energy:green hydrogen, nuclearfusion, geothermal, next-generation Why deep tech is critical for Europe Before we examine how European companies and governments can succeed in building scalabledeep-tech businesses, it’s first important to understand why deep tech presents a unique Europe led the world in industrial innova