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Future of the Tech Sector in Europe

How will the European tech sector develop until 2030?

Over the coming years, a growing number of economic, technological and socio-political developments will provide both significant opportunities and demanding obstacles for European tech firms.

Should they prioritise the development of certain technologies? Is more capital really the answer to achieving scale? And what does the future of the European tech sector really look like?

It’s impossible to know what the future holds. But through a combination of trend mapping, in-depth interviews with industry experts, and hours of tech workshops, we’ve brought four possible futures to life, showing how the European tech sector might look in 2030. Each one is fictional, but each one is possible.

Significant opportunities and demanding obstacles for European tech firms

Which of our possible futures do you think will be a reality?

Use the sliders to determine how attractive Europe will be for tech companies, and how innovative our technology development will be in 2030…

Attractiveness of Europe for tech companies

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Europe’s technological primacy

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Intellectual power house

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Intellectual power house

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The cowardly cash cow

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Who wants to be a trillionaire

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A tech desert

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Greatness divided

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Insight and inspiration

We’ll bring together insights, resources and the European technology community to inspire and support tech businesses, investors and policymakers on their journey to 2030.

Welcome to the Technoverse

The global tech landscape is changing. We believe that by working together - sharing the latest insights and ideas - we can help shape the future of the European tech sector. This is why we’re uniting tech experts and business leaders to spur innovation across the continent.

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Methodology

Our in-depth research has identified the key developments and trends shaping the future of the European tech sector.

Tens of thousands of news articles and blogs about the future of the European tech sector were analyzed by Deep View, our AI tool. These include deep dives into the US-CN relationship, ecosystem and funding, and cross-industry applications.

Interviews were conducted with subject-matter experts from Deloitte, technology businesses, investors and industry bodies, covering the most crucial economic, political, socio-technological and environmental developments surrounding the European Tech Sector.

We combined two critical uncertainties - “Attractiveness of Europe for tech companies” and “Europe's technological primacy”. This resulted in four distinct futures, which were further developed considering the driving forces with low uncertainty and high impact, so called trends.

Underpinning each scenario are seven core drivers and enablers:

Frontier technologies. The extent to which core technology, which has the greatest commercial value add, is developed in Europe.
Talent. The availability of talent wishing to, and able to work in, the European tech sector, or a subset of it.
Management philosophy. The approach to managing businesses, including willingness to take risk and the appetite for audacity.
Availability of capital. The maturity of various classes of investors: funds available, risk appetite, the understanding of tech business models.
Economic environment. Wealth levels, economic inequality within countries, wealth contribution by sector; wealth gaps between countries in Europe.
Political environment. Attitudes towards the technological sector, including sobriety of regulation and support for wealth creation.
Global economy. Attitudes to Europe and its tech sector from countries outside of Europe.

Each scenario is a fictionalised view of the future, featuring made-up companies, but with each narrative extrapolated from real trends, events and technologies. Whilst each outcome is possible, with some more likely than others, Deloitte has created these scenarios to foment discussion on which outcome is desirable, and what needs to happen to get there.