Press Kit: The European AI Index 2026

The European AI Index 2026 is an open ranking of the 15 largest private artificial-intelligence companies headquartered in Europe (EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland) as of May 2026. The dataset is published by Built in EU, an independent directory of European technology alternatives.

The Index applies a strict legal-headquarters rule. Companies that operate from Europe but are incorporated in Delaware or elsewhere outside Europe are excluded from the headline figures and listed separately in an "operationally European, legally American" sidebar. Affected companies in 2026 include Hugging Face, Lovable, Black Forest Labs, ElevenLabs and Poolside, with a combined valuation of approximately $30 billion not represented in the headline number.

Europe's 15 largest private AI companies are valued at a combined $73.2 billion. OpenAI alone is valued at $852 billion. The Index covers 7 European countries; the United Kingdom leads with 5 companies in the top 15, followed by Germany (4) and France (3). Defence AI accounts for 5 of the 15 entries.

All data is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence with downloadable CSV and JSON files. The accompanying long-form analysis cites 33 primary sources and includes a full methodology section.

Inclusion is restricted to private companies (no public listings), with AI as the primary product, and a strict legal headquarters in EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland. Companies legally incorporated outside Europe are excluded from the headline ranking even if their operational base is European. Each ranking row is triple-sourced from primary funding announcements, major financial press (FT, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC, TechCrunch), company press releases, and UK Companies House for UK entities. All figures are USD-denominated; EUR rounds are converted at the ECB reference rate on 2026-05-12. Full methodology and 33 source citations are on the Index page.