Business Insider<\/p>\n
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2025-09-27T09:00:01Z<\/p>\n
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Facebook Email X<\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/p>\n Reddit<\/p>\n Bluesky<\/p>\n WhatsApp<\/p>\n Copy link<\/p>\n lighning bolt icon Impact Link<\/p>\n Save <\/p>\n Read in app<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n This story is available exclusively to Business Insider I flew 2,950 miles to Berlin for the Welt AI Summit \u2014 two days of discussions on the future of AI. This week, Axel Springer hosted business leaders and politicians to debate the present and future of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n Full disclosure: Axel Springer and our emcee, CEO Mathias D\u00f6pfner, own Business Insider.<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n The sleek, futuristic set, ringed with microphones, notebooks, and coffee, made me feel like I was on the bridge of a starbase.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n OpenAI’s Sam Altman may run a startup, but Berlin greeted him as a visiting head of state.<\/p>\n Sam Altman and Mathias D\u00f6pfner.<\/p>\n Axel Springer<\/p>\n He’d brought good news. OpenAI said Wednesday it will partner with German software giant SAP to enable millions of the country’s public sector employees to use ChatGPT.<\/p>\n Philipp Herzig, chief technology officer and chief AI officer at SAP, took the stage later in the day.<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n Germany is OpenAI’s fifth-largest market, and “virtually all” Germans ages 18 to 24 use ChatGPT, Altman said.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n D\u00f6pfner recited a popular criticism of Europe that it regulates new technology before it can take root. He asked if a more iterative approach to rule-making made sense.<\/p>\n Jakof Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n “We absolutely do need regulation,” Altman said. “The technology is moving so fast in such unexpected ways that trying to proactively write the regulation now and have it be correct over decades to come is probably an impossible task.”<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Altman proclaimed fusion the “end state of power on earth.”<\/p>\n Dominik Tryba\/Welt<\/p>\n And he forecast a flood of small to midsize businesses run by solo founders and ChatGPT.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n As their talk wrapped up, I slipped into the hallway to try to catch Altman on his way out.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Success! We talked about his meeting with the German chancellor and the changing visa policy back home.<\/p>\n Reporter Melia Russell and Sam Altman.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Altman is a tough act to follow. Maybe that’s why organizers put Germany’s version of Elon Musk onstage next.<\/p>\n Federal Minister Karsten Wildberger.<\/p>\n Dominik Tryba\/Welt<\/p>\n Karsten Wildberger is Germany’s first-ever federal minister for digital transformation and government modernization. Think DOGE for Deutschland.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n He wants to scale back regulation. “We have to start to open up the gates and allow our companies to innovate much, much faster,” he said.<\/p>\n German Federal Minister Kerstner Wildberger.<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n Deregulation became the battle cry of the day.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Entrepreneurs and politicians asked how else they could jump-start Germany’s tech hub.<\/p>\n Andreas Mundt, president of the German competition authority, raises a question to the speakers.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n One venture capitalist said Germany has an abundance of seed capital, but not enough growth capital to help startups scale. So they end up migrating to other countries.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Richard Socher, a German-born founder who runs You.com, pointed out that venture capital translates as “risk capital” in German. He said this indicates that Germans often focus more on the downsides than the potential rewards.<\/p>\n Richard Socher, founder and CEO of You.com, was patched in live.<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n The last speaker gave the room a pep rally buzz more than a conference vibe.<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Palantir’s Alex Karp dialed in to motivate the Germans. He cheered Germany’s focus on vocational schools and “a\u00a0culture of industrialization that’s second to none.”<\/p>\n Welt<\/p>\n Karp, a fluent German speaker who studied at a university in Frankfurt, argued that Germany shouldn’t try to clone Silicon Valley but instead define its own model \u2014 one that draws on the country’s strengths and channels its native talent.<\/p>\n Axel Springer<\/p>\n “You’re not going to build Silicon Valley in Germany,” Karp said, “You’re going to build a German version.”<\/p>\n Jakob Hoff\/Welt<\/p>\n Read next<\/p>\n
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\n OpenAI’s Sam Altman<\/a>, Palantir’s Alex Karp, and the head of Germany’s DOGE-like ministry<\/a> spoke.
\n A common theme was that Germany needs to scale back regulation so that new tech can flourish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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