16/09/2026
One of the most interesting moments at Hofburg im Dialog: Economy – Europe – Resilience was meeting Sabine E. Herlitschka, CEO and CTO of Infineon Technologies AGechnologies Austria AG.
Her message on stage was clear: Europe is not starting from zero. We already have strong positions in key technologies, especially microelectronics - and we need to build on them.
Infineon’s Austrian operations are a strong example of the industrial capacity Europe already has. In Villach alone, around 8 billion chips were produced in the 2025 financial year, alongside major R&D and advanced manufacturing capabilities.
And this is where the AI conversation becomes much bigger than software.
AI needs models - but also chips, compute, energy, engineering, infrastructure and capital.
Christine Lagarde framed the capital challenge sharply: euro area households hold around €440 billion in US technology companies. Europe is already helping finance the technological transformation of our time - but will it also share in the value being created?
Her conclusion was clear: Europe cannot simply buy the technologies of the future. Part of them has to be built here.
Johannes Brandstetter from Mistral AI added another important perspective: Europe also has the scientific and engineering talent to build industrial AI, not only consume it.
At DINKEL AI & MEDIA TECH GmbH, this question is very concrete for us.
We build AI tools and applications here in Europe, using the best infrastructure available today - much of which is still American. At the same time, we are also exploring European alternatives, including Mistral AI.
For companies like ours, a stronger European AI ecosystem means more choice, more resilience and more of the value chain staying in Europe.
Europe already has industrial champions, research, engineering talent and capital.
The challenge is to connect these strengths - and scale them.