我刚从欧洲最具初创企业氛围的科技盛会之一——Slush大会归来。尽管天气状况恰如其名，气温降至“温暖”的华氏26度（约零下3摄氏度），但仍有众多创业者和投资者不畏风雪，踊跃参与。
超过1.3万人齐聚赫尔辛基，其中包括3500名投资者以及6000家初创企业和成长期企业。其中80%的参与者来自欧洲国家，主要来自北欧、德国和法国，中欧和南欧地区亦有参与。
过去几年，该地区备受投资者和大型科技公司指责，它们对欧盟更严苛的监管环境表示不满，尤其是欧盟委员会的《人工智能法案》。该法案被批评扼杀创新，并导致欧洲在全球人工智能竞赛中落后。
尽管如此，欧洲的创业者和投资者仍充满信心——而这完全归功于人才。
“我从未像现在这样看好欧洲，”Creandum创始人斯塔凡·赫尔格森在一次专题讨论会上表示。“我们这里有很多问题需要解决，但我们拥有优秀的创始人、投资者和人才。随着美国削减移民，欧洲目前正拥有人才优势。”
Gravis Robotics首席执行官瑞安·卢克·约翰斯指出，“人才成本”也低得多。
“我认为，美国的一些举措使得外国学生难以自信地前往、获得签证并确信自己能够留下，这促使许多学生转向瑞士和欧洲，从而非常迅速地提升了这些地区的人才密度，”他告诉《财富》杂志。
人工智能的热潮在Slush大会上依然活跃，但创始人们热衷于将欧洲相对平静的人工智能生态系统定位为对初创企业的积极因素。
前DeepMind工程师、现任法国人工智能初创公司H-company首席技术官的洛朗·西弗雷告诉《财富》杂志，欧洲蕴藏着大量未开发的人工智能人才，而在湾区，获取这类人才既困难又昂贵是出了名的。“欧洲真正的优势在于其世界级的人才：他们不梦想进入大型科技公司，而是渴望从零到一创造、快速行动并带着目标工作。这是我们生态系统的巨大资产，”他说。
当天晚些时候，瑞典人工智能“氛围编程”独角兽公司Lovable的首席执行官安东·奥西卡也将公司的快速增长很大程度上归功于欧洲的科技环境。奥西卡表示，欧洲人工智能市场的发展节奏不如硅谷市场快，这一事实对公司有利。
“所有人都不断告诉我，要想成功，我必须搬到硅谷。我抵制了这种想法，我们将公司留在了斯德哥尔摩，并从美国引进人才为我们工作……欧洲在许多方面都是发展人工智能、尤其是打造产品型公司的更佳之地，”他说。
上周，还有消息传出，欧盟正提议一项计划，拟缩减其部分具有里程碑意义的隐私和人工智能法律，目的可能是为了缓解人们对更严厉规则正在削弱该联盟竞争力的担忧。此举在面临大型科技公司、唐纳德·特朗普以及意大利前总理、欧洲央行前行长马里奥·德拉吉等知名内部人士数月的压力后出台，目前已遭遇一些反对声音。欧盟委员会称这些变化是规则的“简化”而非削弱。
尽管如此，赫尔辛基的氛围却是统一的：欧洲的科技生态系统感觉良好。或者正如Slush入口处悬挂的横幅所言：“还在怀疑欧洲？去赫尔辛基看看吧！”（*）
作者：中慧言-王芳
我刚从欧洲最具初创企业氛围的科技盛会之一——Slush大会归来。尽管天气状况恰如其名，气温降至“温暖”的华氏26度（约零下3摄氏度），但仍有众多创业者和投资者不畏风雪，踊跃参与。
超过1.3万人齐聚赫尔辛基，其中包括3500名投资者以及6000家初创企业和成长期企业。其中80%的参与者来自欧洲国家，主要来自北欧、德国和法国，中欧和南欧地区亦有参与。
过去几年，该地区备受投资者和大型科技公司指责，它们对欧盟更严苛的监管环境表示不满，尤其是欧盟委员会的《人工智能法案》。该法案被批评扼杀创新，并导致欧洲在全球人工智能竞赛中落后。
尽管如此，欧洲的创业者和投资者仍充满信心——而这完全归功于人才。
“我从未像现在这样看好欧洲，”Creandum创始人斯塔凡·赫尔格森在一次专题讨论会上表示。“我们这里有很多问题需要解决，但我们拥有优秀的创始人、投资者和人才。随着美国削减移民，欧洲目前正拥有人才优势。”
Gravis Robotics首席执行官瑞安·卢克·约翰斯指出，“人才成本”也低得多。
“我认为，美国的一些举措使得外国学生难以自信地前往、获得签证并确信自己能够留下，这促使许多学生转向瑞士和欧洲，从而非常迅速地提升了这些地区的人才密度，”他告诉《财富》杂志。
人工智能的热潮在Slush大会上依然活跃，但创始人们热衷于将欧洲相对平静的人工智能生态系统定位为对初创企业的积极因素。
前DeepMind工程师、现任法国人工智能初创公司H-company首席技术官的洛朗·西弗雷告诉《财富》杂志，欧洲蕴藏着大量未开发的人工智能人才，而在湾区，获取这类人才既困难又昂贵是出了名的。“欧洲真正的优势在于其世界级的人才：他们不梦想进入大型科技公司，而是渴望从零到一创造、快速行动并带着目标工作。这是我们生态系统的巨大资产，”他说。
当天晚些时候，瑞典人工智能“氛围编程”独角兽公司Lovable的首席执行官安东·奥西卡也将公司的快速增长很大程度上归功于欧洲的科技环境。奥西卡表示，欧洲人工智能市场的发展节奏不如硅谷市场快，这一事实对公司有利。
“所有人都不断告诉我，要想成功，我必须搬到硅谷。我抵制了这种想法，我们将公司留在了斯德哥尔摩，并从美国引进人才为我们工作……欧洲在许多方面都是发展人工智能、尤其是打造产品型公司的更佳之地，”他说。
上周，还有消息传出，欧盟正提议一项计划，拟缩减其部分具有里程碑意义的隐私和人工智能法律，目的可能是为了缓解人们对更严厉规则正在削弱该联盟竞争力的担忧。此举在面临大型科技公司、唐纳德·特朗普以及意大利前总理、欧洲央行前行长马里奥·德拉吉等知名内部人士数月的压力后出台，目前已遭遇一些反对声音。欧盟委员会称这些变化是规则的“简化”而非削弱。
尽管如此，赫尔辛基的氛围却是统一的：欧洲的科技生态系统感觉良好。或者正如Slush入口处悬挂的横幅所言：“还在怀疑欧洲？去赫尔辛基看看吧！”（*）
作者：中慧言-王芳
Good morning, tech reporter Beatrice Nolan here, filling in for Allie Garfinkle. I've just returned from Slush, one of Europe's most startup-focused tech events. While the weather lived up to its name---temperatures dropped to a toasty 26°F---there was no shortage of founders and investors willing to brave the snow.
More than 13,000 people, including 3,500 investors and 6,000 startups and scaleups, descended on Helsinki. Of these, 80% came from European countries, mainly northern Europe, Germany and France, but also central and southern Europe.
The region has gotten a fair bit of flak over the last few years, both from investors and Big Tech companies that have taken issue with the EU's harsher regulatory landscape, especially the commission's AI Act, which has been blamed for stifling innovation and setting Europe back in the global AI race.
Still, European founders and investors are feeling confident---and that's all down to talent.
“I've never been more bullish about Europe,” Creandum founder Staffan Helgesson said during a panel. “There are a lot of things we need to fix here, but we have great founders, investors, and talent. Europe has a talent advantage right now, with the U.S. cutting down on immigration.”
The “cost of talent” is also much lower, according to Gravis Robotics CEO Ryan Luke Johns.
“I think that some of the initiatives in the U.S. that have made it hard for foreign students to be confident moving in and getting a visa, and knowing that they're going to be able to stay, have driven a lot of those students into Switzerland and into Europe, and that's bringing up the talent density very, very quickly,” he told Fortune.
The AI hype was also alive and well at Slush, but founders were keen to position Europe's comparatively quieter AI ecosystem as a positive for startups.
Laurent Sifre, a former DeepMind engineer and now-CTO of the French AI startup H-company, told Fortune that Europe was brimming with untapped AI talent, something that has become notoriously difficult and expensive to secure in the Bay Area. “Europe's real advantage is its world-class talent: people who don't dream of Big Tech, but of building zero-to-one, moving fast, and working with purpose. It's a huge asset for our ecosystem,” he said.
Later that day, Anton Osika, CEO of the Swedish AI “vibe-coding” unicorn Lovable, also credited Europe's tech scene with a large part of the company's rapid growth. Osika said that the fact that the AI market in Europe is not as fast-paced as the market in Silicon Valley has worked to the company's benefit.
“Everyone kept telling me that to be successful, I had to move to Silicon Valley. I resisted that and we kept the company in Stockholm, bringing talent from the U.S. to work for us...Europe is in many ways a better place for AI development and especially for building a product company,” he said.
Last week, news also broke that the EU was proposing a plan that would scale back some of its landmark privacy and AI laws, likely aimed at calming fears that harsher rules are undermining the bloc's competitiveness. The move, which is already facing some pushback, comes after months of pressure from Big Tech, Donald Trump, and prominent insiders like former Italian prime minister and ex-ECB chief Mario Draghi. The Commission is calling the changes a “simplification” of the rules rather than a weakening of them.
Nevertheless, the mood in Helsinki was a unified one: Europe's tech ecosystem is feeling good. Or as the banner hanging at the entrance of Slush put it: “Still doubting Europe? Go to Hel!”