Spirit SAP'd

Discontent with EU regulations

Siemens and SAP CEOs recently challenged the European Union to revise its artificial intelligence legislation, saying the current rules stifle innovation.

SAP CEO Christian Klein and Siemens CEO Roland Busch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this week that a new regulatory framework is needed to support rather than hinder technological advancement.

But Siemens' Busch said the Act was a key reason Europe is lagging, adding that overlapping and sometimes contradictory regulations are hampering progress.

He said the EU's Data Act, another law which sets out obligations on how companies use consumer and corporate data, was "toxic" for developing digital business models.

While several companies (including Google owner Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta) recently wrote to Brussels asking for the rules to be postponed, Busch declined to sign their letter, saying the proposal did not go far enough.

SAP's Klein warned against simply copying the U.S. and only investing heavily in infrastructure and data centers, emphasizing that infrastructure shortages are not the main barrier in Europe.

Instead, both CEOs called for reforming data rules before investing in data centers.

"We are sitting on a treasure trove of data in Europe, but we are not yet able to tap into it," Busch told the newspaper. "It's not access to computing capacity that we're currently lacking, but the release of resources."