Bertin Martens
Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the Brussels economics think tank, focused on digital policy.
Bertin Martens, a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, co-authored the Brussels think tank's brief putting the EU's AI compute capacity at 5 per cent of the global total, published 10 September 2026.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Bertin Martens
Co-authored the Bruegel compute brief
European Tech Sovereignty: Bruegel puts EU AI compute at 5%Background
Bertin Martens is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, the Brussels-based economics think tank, working on digital and competition policy. Bruegel is among the most-cited European policy institutes on technology and trade issues, and Martens' work there focuses on how EU rules and infrastructure gaps shape the bloc's digital competitiveness.
Beyond the September 2026 compute brief, Martens has written on EU-China rivalry in AI chips with Alicia García-Herrero, placing his research at the intersection of competition policy, industrial strategy and geopolitics. His work is regularly cited in Lowdown's European tech sovereignty coverage as an independent benchmark against government and industry claims about the EU's AI infrastructure position.
He flags Europe's AI compute gap
Bertin Martens, a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, co-authored with Tillman Schenk a brief published on 10 September 2026 that put Europe's AI computing capacity at just 5 per cent of the world total, against 78 per cent for the US and 11 per cent for China.
The brief argues that slow permitting, not a shortage of capital, holds European AI infrastructure back: German data centres often wait 42 months for approval, against 24 months in the US. Martens has also written on EU-China AI chip rivalry with Alicia García-Herrero.
Who is Bertin Martens?
What did Bertin Martens find about EU AI compute?
