SAP CEO Christian Klein, pictured in May 16, 2024, says he would support a $500 billion Stargate Europe.
Alex Grimm | Getty Images News | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recently announced Stargate Project — a $500 billion investment in American AI infrastructure — should be a “wake-up call” for Europe, according to the CEO of one of the region’s biggest tech firms.
Asked on Thursday about the project, which is backed by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle and led by the Trump administration, SAP CEO Christian Klein said it should set an example for Europe.
“It’s the right move, and it’s also about making the government more productive,” he said. “Look at Europe, we always complain about regulations about too many AI acts … It’s a great role model for Europe.”
Klein added that he would “absolutely support” a Stargate Project for Europe.
“We do business with all public sectors across the world, of course we would welcome that in Europe,” he told CNBC’s Karen Tso and Steve Sedgwick. “Europe needs it the most, from my perspective.”
Klein, who has been in the chief executive role at German software developer SAP since 2019, argued that the major barrier to starting a Stargate-type project in Europe is not a question of access to capital in the region being more restricted than in the United States.
“It’s not even the lack of financing — in Europe, it’s a question of who owns it,” he argued. “Who actually gives the order to say we digitize Europe, we digitize our agencies, and we are not doing it in silos, we are doing it as a union.”
He said countries are focusing on domestic AI development rather than looking at how markets could collaborate to develop the technology.
“Think about startups — we are a big multinational tech company, we can do it. But the small startups, they need a market to scale in and it’s by far not a union.”
“My hope is that … everything that’s happened in the United States is certainly a wake up call. We need to see proof but I hope now Europe comes together and form a union in digitization, it’s super important,” Klein added.
“When you look at our industries, we have manufacturing, autos, chemicals — we need to apply AI to make [them] more competitive. We need more boldness, more willingness, more courage.”
He said the responsibility falls on both politicians and businesses, and that lawmakers need to build the right frameworks so that companies can drive the AI transformation and implement the technology.
