Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has urged startup founders in Britain to emulate their peers in Silicon Valley and avoid exiting their companies early.
Speaking at Sifted Summit on Wednesday, Schmidt alluded to an accelerating trend for promising AI startups to be bought up by far larger American companies.
Last summer, US chipmaker AMD bought Finland’s Silo AI for $665m. In May, Salesforce snapped up London-based Convergence for an estimated $200m; while in July, US customer service giant NiCE paid almost $1bn to acquire Dusseldorf-based Cognigy.
Appearing for a fireside conversation alongside Sifted editorial director John Thornhill, Schmidt blamed chronic underinvestment and complex regulations for undermining Europe’s ability to compete in AI.
“I love Europe and I love the UK. I’ve given up trying to tell people the truth because it doesn’t seem to change anything,” Schmidt said.
“I’ve spent a fair amount of time with UK entrepreneurs. They tend to make $100m and then sell. In Silicon Valley, people say ‘I started there’,” he told the audience. “Please don’t sell for $100m. Please wait for $10bn.”
Schmidt was speaking on the Next Stage at Sifted Summit in London, which this week plays host to other leading tech entrepreneurs such as Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson and Sequoia Capital investor Luciana Lixandru.
Taking aim at perceived over-regulation in Europe, he said: “I will tell you emphatically: I hired 10k people in Europe when I was CEO. You do not have a people problem; you don't have a way for them to organise that is capitalistic.”
This article has been corrected to reflect Eric Schmidt's reference to “$10bn” rather than “$100bn”.
