People say the US encourages monopolies, yet the USA produces four times as many billion-dollar startups as the EU.

America's lead over Europe in tech, visualized. US spends 22x more on AI related property, plants, and equipment than Europe, and the market capitalization of the largest US tech companies are 21x larger than Europe's
byu/Illustrious_Gap1681 inEconomyCharts

From an October 2026 OECD Report on this:

Europe regularly produces world-class entrepreneurs, scientists and innovative start-ups. Yet far fewer European firms become global technology leaders than their counterparts in the United States. The United States has more than four times as many billion-dollar start-ups as the European Union:  1 586 compared with 358.

https://www.oecd.org/en/blogs/2026/10/why-europe-produces-far-fewer-billion-dollar-start-ups-understanding-the-scale-up-gap-with-the-united-states.html

Tech is where much of the growth has been since at least the 1990s. And this has all sorts of implications.

In 1995, EU labor productivity was 95% that of the US. Today it’s closer to 80%. That means, on average, an EU worker is producing only 80% of the value that an American worker is producing each hour. Which largely explains why US median wages eclipse those in the EU.

It’s also led to “brain drain” of EU tech talent and companies to the EU. Between 2008 and 2021, nearly 30% of EU-founded “unicorns” — startups valued over $1 billion — relocated abroad, mostly to the US. Those companies are providing high-paying US jobs.

https://www.pymnts.com/technology/2024/draghi-report-says-eu-faces-existential-competitive-challenge-for-tech-investment/

h/t uses_for_mooses