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Berlin Hosts GITEX AI Europe 2026, Bringing 80+ Nations to a Two-Day AI Summit
Berlin will host the second annual GITEX AI Europe summit from 30 June to 1 July 2026 at Messe Berlin. The event will bring together global technology leaders, enterprise executives, founders and policymakers from more than 80 countries. It is scheduled to coincide with a forecast that the European technology sector will exceed a valuation of €1.5 trillion.
The summit is organised by inD, the network that runs the world’s largest technology and AI event configurations. It is backed by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and by Berlin Partner for Business and Technology. The organisers say the two‑day platform aims to cement cross‑border AI alliances, address data‑sovereignty concerns and accelerate venture‑capital investment in deep‑tech companies.
Berlin’s selection as host reflects the city’s status as a major European innovation hub. Dealroom’s 2025 Report shows that the German capital has a total startup‑ecosystem value of €169 billion, hosts 57 tech unicorns and is the professional base for more than 9,000 highly specialised AI professionals – the fourth‑largest pool of AI engineering talent in Europe.
Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s Vice Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, said that hosting the gathering would strengthen the city’s strategic position as a gateway for cross‑border investment and long‑term technical collaboration. She added that the platform offers an opportunity to design a shared European digital architecture that balances disruptive technology with infrastructure security and national sovereignty.
Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and State Modernisation, Dr. Karsten Wildberger, is scheduled to speak on Europe’s ability to power, regulate and scale data infrastructure quickly enough to stay competitive. Wildberger said that Europe must avoid simply copying what external markets do better and instead leverage Germany’s industrial base, enterprise data sets and new compute installations.
The exhibition floor will feature major enterprise technology companies, including AWS, Cloudflare, CommScope, HPE, ManageEngine, Red Hat, Salesforce and TrendAI. Generative‑AI pioneers OpenAI and Google will run practitioner‑led masterclasses on advanced AI coding and endpoint‑security design.
The event will also showcase first‑time national technology pavilions from Austria, Canada, Greece and Japan. German industrial leaders Bosch and BASF will play a leading role; BASF supplies specialised materials for the global semiconductor and electronics markets.
European software firms will demonstrate how local applications can achieve global adoption. DeepL, known for its AI translation engine, will show how language can be a barrier to international enterprise use. Leonardo Doin, head of voice at DeepL, explained that the company’s new voice tool is designed for high‑stakes corporate conversations.
A key focus of the summit is the North Star Europe program, a startup showcase that will feature more than 500 hand‑selected companies in quantum security, industrial automation and deep tech. These startups will network with more than 600 global venture‑capital and private‑equity investors who manage an aggregate pool of over US$1 trillion in assets. KfW Capital has deployed €2.5 billion across 132 European venture‑capital funds, and pan‑European bank UniCredit controls a total asset value of US$865 billion.
Speaker sessions will include insights from more than 20 regional and global unicorns. Niklas Östberg, CEO of Delivery Hero, will discuss the company’s €15 billion annual revenue across more than 70 countries.
Ryan Foutty, VP of Business at Perplexity – an AI search orchestration company backed by NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos and Yann LeCun – will outline the next evolution of conversational search. Foutty said that online search infrastructure has been largely static for the past 30 years and that the next logical step is an “action engine” that allows autonomous AI agents to execute complex real‑world workloads on behalf of users.
The summit is expected to shape the direction of European AI policy, investment, and technology deployment. It will provide a forum for cross‑border collaboration, showcase emerging deep‑tech solutions, and highlight the need for robust data‑infrastructure and sovereignty.
The event will conclude on 1 July 2026, leaving participants with a clearer view of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for AI in Europe.
The summit is organised by inD, the network that runs the world’s largest technology and AI event configurations. It is backed by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and by Berlin Partner for Business and Technology. The organisers say the two‑day platform aims to cement cross‑border AI alliances, address data‑sovereignty concerns and accelerate venture‑capital investment in deep‑tech companies.
Berlin’s selection as host reflects the city’s status as a major European innovation hub. Dealroom’s 2025 Report shows that the German capital has a total startup‑ecosystem value of €169 billion, hosts 57 tech unicorns and is the professional base for more than 9,000 highly specialised AI professionals – the fourth‑largest pool of AI engineering talent in Europe.
Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s Vice Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, said that hosting the gathering would strengthen the city’s strategic position as a gateway for cross‑border investment and long‑term technical collaboration. She added that the platform offers an opportunity to design a shared European digital architecture that balances disruptive technology with infrastructure security and national sovereignty.
Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and State Modernisation, Dr. Karsten Wildberger, is scheduled to speak on Europe’s ability to power, regulate and scale data infrastructure quickly enough to stay competitive. Wildberger said that Europe must avoid simply copying what external markets do better and instead leverage Germany’s industrial base, enterprise data sets and new compute installations.
The exhibition floor will feature major enterprise technology companies, including AWS, Cloudflare, CommScope, HPE, ManageEngine, Red Hat, Salesforce and TrendAI. Generative‑AI pioneers OpenAI and Google will run practitioner‑led masterclasses on advanced AI coding and endpoint‑security design.
The event will also showcase first‑time national technology pavilions from Austria, Canada, Greece and Japan. German industrial leaders Bosch and BASF will play a leading role; BASF supplies specialised materials for the global semiconductor and electronics markets.
European software firms will demonstrate how local applications can achieve global adoption. DeepL, known for its AI translation engine, will show how language can be a barrier to international enterprise use. Leonardo Doin, head of voice at DeepL, explained that the company’s new voice tool is designed for high‑stakes corporate conversations.
A key focus of the summit is the North Star Europe program, a startup showcase that will feature more than 500 hand‑selected companies in quantum security, industrial automation and deep tech. These startups will network with more than 600 global venture‑capital and private‑equity investors who manage an aggregate pool of over US$1 trillion in assets. KfW Capital has deployed €2.5 billion across 132 European venture‑capital funds, and pan‑European bank UniCredit controls a total asset value of US$865 billion.
Speaker sessions will include insights from more than 20 regional and global unicorns. Niklas Östberg, CEO of Delivery Hero, will discuss the company’s €15 billion annual revenue across more than 70 countries.
Ryan Foutty, VP of Business at Perplexity – an AI search orchestration company backed by NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos and Yann LeCun – will outline the next evolution of conversational search. Foutty said that online search infrastructure has been largely static for the past 30 years and that the next logical step is an “action engine” that allows autonomous AI agents to execute complex real‑world workloads on behalf of users.
The summit is expected to shape the direction of European AI policy, investment, and technology deployment. It will provide a forum for cross‑border collaboration, showcase emerging deep‑tech solutions, and highlight the need for robust data‑infrastructure and sovereignty.
The event will conclude on 1 July 2026, leaving participants with a clearer view of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for AI in Europe.
