The European Union (EU) set to launch a blockchain and artificial intelligence fund worth up to 400 million euros. The move reflects the region’s desire to keep abreast of innovation efforts by rivals such as the U.S. and China
The European Investment Fund and the European Commission will jointly raise 100 million euros in funds. It will later invest in blockchain and artificial intelligence projects.
The plan is by inducing venture capital investors or other investors to participate, the European Investment Fund announced. The European Investment Fund is a European Union organization with purpose of indirect investment in small and medium enterprises.
EU AI & Blockchain fund: to not be behind US and China
EIF also predicted that it might raise up to 300 million euros in initial funds in the form of private equity investment. And that the total investment for next year will be much higher. As state-run banks in member countries can also jointly invest. The EIF forecast that fund raising will reach up to 2 billion euros if the InvestEU program runs.
In addition, the EIF said that the EU has invested a significant amount of money in the blockchain sector. And that the investment alone is estimated at $674 million this year. However, the investment mainly focused on blockchain-based technology research and proof of concept.
According to the data by IT market research firm IDC, the countries that invested the most in the blockchain sector this year were the United States and China. Each invests $1.1 billion and $319 million, respectively.
Many see this fund as the European Union’s willingness to catch up with the pace of research and development in the U.S. and China by investing a lot in large-scale projects related to blockchain and artificial intelligence.
“Investing in a portfolio of innovative AI and blockchain companies will help develop a dynamic EU-wide investors community on AI and blockchain. By involving national promotional banks, we can scale up the volume of investments at a national level” – EIF
Other countries such as South Korea has also invested a lot in the AI and blockchain sector. The country is soon to implement blockchain ID.
