From Coordination to Creation: What the Transatlantic AI Symposium in San Francisco Revealed
In December 2025, GACC West and Cambrian Futures brought together leading voices from industry, government, and academia in San Francisco around one central question: How should the United States and Europe position themselves together for the age of artificial intelligence?
It was one of those moments when a conversation stops being purely technical and becomes unmistakably political. What began as an expert exchange on regulation and innovation quickly developed into a broader strategic question: Who will shape the rules of the emerging global economy — and who will simply have to live by them?
The answer from the room was clear: the United States and Europe cannot afford to remain on the sidelines.
A New Economic Order Demands New Alliances
The discussions took place against the backdrop of what is increasingly being described as a “G2+X” world order. In this framework, the US and China stand as the two dominant poles of a global digital economy — a “cognitive economy” in which power is defined less by territory or raw materials than by control over data, computing capacity, and artificial intelligence. The “X” represents the open variable, and it is precisely here that Europe’s strategic opportunity lies.
Europe — and Germany in particular — is far from a weak player. It brings assets that neither Silicon Valley nor Beijing can easily replicate: a deep engineering culture, industrial precision, and a long-standing tradition of human-centered product development. What Europe lacks is speed and scale. What the US lacks, paradoxically, is often the reverse: a governance philosophy centered on trust and human-centered design rather than growth alone.
Rather than treating these differences as weaknesses, the symposium framed them as strategic complementarity.
Industrial AI: Where Bits Meet Bolts
One of the most concrete themes was industrial AI — the integration of digital intelligence into the physical world, from manufacturing and logistics to energy infrastructure and automotive production. This is where the transatlantic division of labor becomes especially visible. American companies contribute powerful foundation models and platforms; German and European companies contribute high-quality industrial data and the expertise needed to operate complex physical systems.
The partnership between Qualcomm and BMW was highlighted as a telling example of this dynamic — a case in which American AI capabilities and German industrial know-how combine to create something neither side could have built alone.
The message was straightforward: the next great industrial leap will happen where bits meet bolts. And that is exactly where the transatlantic partnership holds a competitive advantage that is difficult to match.
Governance as a Competitive Advantage
A substantial part of the discussion focused on regulation, a subject that in European AI circles is often associated with caution and defensive thinking. In San Francisco, however, that perspective shifted. Trust and safety were not framed as obstacles to innovation, but as inseparable competitive advantages. A regulatory environment that protects users helps build acceptance, and acceptance accelerates adoption.
Participants identified several practical challenges. Today, companies must navigate a patchwork of GDPR, the EU AI Act, and fragmented U.S. state-level rules. What is needed is not more regulation, but better design: common standards, mutual recognition, and a reporting framework that startups and SMEs can realistically manage.
The concept of a “Digital Omnibus” came up repeatedly — an approach aimed at harmonizing existing rules rather than adding yet another layer of complexity.
Securing the Foundations
Beyond regulation, the symposium also addressed the material foundations of the cognitive economy. Computing power requires energy. Energy requires infrastructure. Infrastructure requires critical raw materials. And on all three fronts, the US and Europe remain dependent on supply chains they do not fully control.
The call was for a joint strategy covering energy, data centers, and critical minerals — coordinated among allies and developed in partnership with trusted countries.
Just as important was the discussion of AI literacy. Societies that understand AI tend to be less fearful and more innovative. Education, from primary school through vocational training, will be essential if Europe is to secure its place in the cognitive economy.
From the Periphery to the Core
The symposium showed how much the transatlantic debate has matured. The question is no longer whether cooperation makes sense — that is widely accepted. The real question is how deep that cooperation needs to go.
The emerging answer is clear: the future lies not in coordination at the margins, but in joint design at the core — a truly transatlantic stack of technological and regulatory infrastructure capable of competing on a global scale.
Whether the US and Europe can build that will become clear in the years ahead. But in San Francisco, there was little doubt that the alternative is decline.
© All Images: Barak Shrama