Europe’s €120 Billion Investment Gap
Europe’s €120 billion investment gap points to a deeper problem: fragmentation is preventing capital, infrastructure and successful ideas from scaling across borders.
A striking number appeared in the European business news today: €120 billion.
That is the estimated amount of investment Europe may be missing every year because successful national models, infrastructure, energy systems and technologies are not being connected and scaled across borders. The figure comes from a new study by The European House–Ambrosetti (TEHA), produced in collaboration with Amazon. The study estimates that Europe needs around €600 billion of additional investment every year between 2025 and 2030 to remain competitive.
But there is something more interesting here than the size of the numbers.
Europe’s investment challenge is often described as a shortage of capital. I increasingly think it is better understood as a connection problem.
Europe has capital. It has sophisticated financial markets, institutional investors, private equity, private credit and infrastructure funds. It has technology, world-class companies, entrepreneurs and universities. It also has enormous infrastructure and energy needs.
Yet these pieces often remain separated by national borders, different regulations, planning systems, energy markets and investment environments.
The result is a paradox: Europe can have capital looking for opportunities at the same time as it has projects that struggle to attract the capital needed to scale.
That is something I see from a very practical perspective through HEERING CAPITAL, where we work at the intersection between developers, projects and international capital. The existence of capital does not automatically mean that capital reaches the right project. Someone still has to connect the two.
From national success to European scale
Perhaps the most interesting finding in the new study is that Europe does not necessarily need to look elsewhere for the answers.
Many of the ingredients are already here.
Spain has developed strengths in renewable energy and content production. France has built significant AI capabilities. The Nordic countries have advanced energy integration. Estonia has developed digital infrastructure. Other Member States have developed successful approaches to transport, skills and regulation.
The challenge is to connect these strengths and allow them to scale.
This matters even more as Europe enters a new infrastructure cycle. The energy transition alone is expected to require approximately €660 billion of investment annually between 2026 and 2030, according to the European Commission, with private capital expected to play a central role.
At the same time, the AI economy is creating demand for a new generation of infrastructure: data centres, power generation, grids, fibre, cooling and the real estate required to support them.
These investments do not exist independently. They depend on one another.
A data centre needs power. Power needs grids. Infrastructure needs land, planning and financing. And all of these elements need to come together in the right place at the right time.
So the question is not simply:
How do we find more money?
It is:
How do we make more opportunities investable?
Europe’s next competitive advantage
Europe does not need to become less diverse. It needs to become better connected.
Capital should be able to move more efficiently. Energy and infrastructure should connect across borders. Companies should be able to scale across Europe without effectively entering a new operating environment every time they cross a national border.
And successful investment and infrastructure models should be replicated rather than remaining isolated national examples.
Europe already has many of the pieces.
Capital. Technology. Talent. Infrastructure. Entrepreneurs. Projects.
The opportunity is to connect them — and scale them.
That may be one of the defining investment challenges, and opportunities, of Tomorrow’s Economy.
— Nikolai Nalu Heering
Founder, HEERING CAPITAL