The companion piece to the podcast episode 11 of Sarah’s tech

This is a thought experiment, not investment advice. We picked companies for what they tell us about Europe’s tech economy — not for their prospects as investments. Valuations are approximate (Q2/Q3 2026, mixed USD/EUR as reported); WKNs are German securities identifiers for readers who want to look companies up on German finance portals.

The one number to remember: the three largest positions in this list — ASML, ARM and SAP — are worth more than the other forty combined. One of the three trades on Nasdaq.

---

Basket 1: Semiconductors, Software & IT Services

Company	HQ	Listed	WKN	Mkt Cap	What they do
ASML	Veldhoven, NL	Euronext Amsterdam + Nasdaq	A1J4U4	$678B	Lithography machines for chipmaking, ~90% market share. Every advanced chip on earth passes through an ASML machine.
ARM Holdings	Cambridge, UK	Nasdaq	A3EUCF*	$280B	CPU architecture licensed into 99% of smartphones. Owned by SoftBank. Europe’s second-most-valuable tech firm — listed in New York.
SAP	Walldorf, DE	Xetra	716460	$182B	Enterprise software (ERP). Europe’s largest software company; runs the back office of most global corporations.
Infineon	Munich, DE	Xetra	623100	$100B	Power and automotive semiconductors; market leader in chips that manage electricity.
NXP	Eindhoven, NL	Nasdaq	A1C5WJ*	$68B	Automotive and secure-connectivity chips. Dutch HQ, US listing.
STMicroelectronics	Geneva, CH (FR/IT)	Euronext Paris/Milan	893438	$60B	Sensors, microcontrollers, power chips — a Franco-Italian merger from 1987.
Nokia	Espoo, FI	Nasdaq Helsinki	870737	$58B	Telecom network equipment and patents. The former consumer giant, reborn as infrastructure.
ASM International	Almere, NL	Euronext Amsterdam	972092*	$52B	Atomic layer deposition equipment — another Dutch chokepoint in chipmaking.
Ericsson	Stockholm, SE	Nasdaq Stockholm	850001	$33B	Mobile network equipment; supplies the world’s 5G carriers.
Dassault Systèmes	Vélizy, FR	Euronext Paris	A0DPPB*	$28B	3D design and product-lifecycle software (CATIA); Boeing and VW design on it.
Capgemini	Paris, FR	Euronext Paris	869858	—	IT consulting and systems integration at global scale.
Reply	Turin, IT	Borsa Italiana	A2G9K9	~€3.6B	Italian IT services network focused on cloud, AI and digital transformation.
Bechtle	Neckarsulm, DE	Xetra	515870	—	IT systems house for the German Mittelstand and public sector.
Indra Sistemas	Madrid, ES	BME Madrid	A0ETNA*	$9.8B	Spanish defence electronics and IT — air traffic, elections, transport systems.

Basket 2: Cloud & Digital Infrastructure

Company	HQ	Listed	WKN	Mkt Cap	What they do
Nebius Group	Amsterdam, NL	Nasdaq	A1JGSL	$44B	AI cloud („neocloud“) carved out of Yandex; Microsoft and Meta among its customers. Amsterdam HQ, New York listing, complicated past.
Schneider Electric	Rueil, FR	Euronext Paris	860180	—	Energy management and data-centre power — the quiet winner of the AI build-out.
IONOS	Montabaur, DE	Xetra	A3E00M	~€4.2B	Europe’s largest web host (11M+ domains), cloud for SMEs. Free float ~12%; United Internet holds the rest. (Disclosure: the author works for a competitor.)
OVH Groupe	Roubaix, FR	Euronext Paris	A3C45N	~€1.8B	France’s sovereign-cloud champion; builds its own servers and data centres. Worth roughly 1/1000th of a US hyperscaler.
Quest Holdings	Athens, GR	Athens SE	A1XA84	~€0.8B	Greece’s digital conglomerate: IT integration, ACS courier network, electronics retail.
AROBS Transilvania	Cluj, RO	Bucharest SE	A3EK2B	micro	Romanian software house (automotive, telematics) — proof the talent exists; the listing is barely tradable from Western Europe.

Basket 3: Robotics & Automation

Company	HQ	Listed	WKN	Mkt Cap	What they do
Siemens	Munich, DE	Xetra	723610	—	Industrial automation and software (Digital Industries) inside Europe’s biggest engineering group.
ABB	Zurich, CH	SIX + Stockholm	919730	—	Europe’s only industrial-robotics world player; electrification and automation.
Hexagon	Stockholm, SE	Nasdaq Stockholm	A1H4Y3*	$22B	Sensors and measurement software for factories and mines — the overlooked Swede.
Kion Group	Frankfurt, DE	Xetra	KGX888	—	Forklifts and warehouse automation. Largest shareholder: China’s Weichai Power (~47%).
AutoStore	Nedre Vats, NO	Oslo Børs	A3C5A3	~€4B	Cube-storage warehouse robots. Norwegian operations — registered in Bermuda.
Kardex	Zurich, CH	SIX	A0RMWK	~€2B	Automated storage and retrieval systems.
Dürr	Bietigheim, DE	Xetra	556520	—	Paint-shop robots for the car industry; world leader in its niche.
Jungheinrich (pref.)	Hamburg, DE	Xetra	621993	—	Intralogistics and warehouse trucks.
Basler	Ahrensburg, DE	Xetra	510200	—	Industrial cameras — machine vision for robots.

Basket 4: E-Commerce, Platforms & Payments

Company	HQ	Listed	WKN	Mkt Cap	What they do
Prosus	Amsterdam, NL	Euronext Amsterdam	A2PRDK*	$101B	Consumer-internet holding; ~80% of value is a stake in China’s Tencent.
Spotify	Stockholm, SE	NYSE	A2JEGN	$98B	Music streaming, 750M users. Swedish product, Luxembourg legal shell, New York listing.
Adyen	Amsterdam, NL	Euronext Amsterdam	A2JNF4	$31B	Payment platform for global merchants; one of the few that stayed home.
Amadeus IT	Madrid, ES	BME Madrid	A1CXN0	$25B	The booking backbone of global travel — a genuine European platform monopoly.
Delivery Hero	Berlin, DE	Xetra	A2E4K4	$13B	Food and quick-commerce delivery across 70 countries.
Wise	London, UK	Nasdaq (2nd listing LSE)	A3EWWA*	$13B	Cross-border payments. Founded by Estonians, built in London, incorporated in Jersey — primary listing moved to Nasdaq in May 2026.
Allegro	Poznań, PL	GPW Warsaw	A2QEGF	$12B	Poland’s dominant marketplace (~45–50% of e-commerce GMV); Luxembourg holding.
Klarna	Stockholm, SE	NYSE	A414N7	—	Buy-now-pay-later, 111M users. Swedish bank licence, UK plc, NYSE listing since Sept 2025.
Zalando	Berlin, DE	Xetra	ZAL111	—	Europe’s largest fashion platform.
Ocado	Hatfield, UK	LSE	A1C2GZ	~£1.5B	Started as an online grocer; now earns its keep selling warehouse robotics.
Redcare Pharmacy	Sevenum, NL	Xetra	A2AR94	~€1.3B	Online pharmacy (ex Shop Apotheke) for the DACH market and beyond.
HelloFresh	Berlin, DE	Xetra	A16140	—	Meal-kit pioneer.
Auto1	Berlin, DE	Xetra	A2LQ88	—	Wholesale and retail used-car platform.

Basket 5: Quantum & AI

Company	HQ	Listed	WKN	Mkt Cap	What they do
IQM Quantum Computers	Espoo, FI + Munich	Nasdaq (via SPAC, 2 July 2026)	—	~$2.5B	Europe’s first listed quantum company: 23 full-stack superconducting systems sold, customers incl. Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. Helsinki second listing announced.
(investable AI proxies)					SAP, IONOS, Nebius, Schneider, Hexagon, Siemens, plus the chip chain above. There is no listed European AI lab.

The Bench: Built in Europe, Not Buyable in Europe

Private companies — valuations from funding rounds, not markets:

• Revolut (London) — $75B. Europe’s biggest fintech.
• Helsing (Munich/Berlin) — $18B. Defence AI.
• Trade Republic (Berlin) — $14B. Retail brokerage.
• Mistral AI (Paris) — ~$14–20B. Europe’s flagship AI lab. IPO announced, no date. ASML invested €1.7B — the only public-market route to Mistral runs through a lithography company.
• Celonis (Munich) — $13B. Process mining.
• ElevenLabs (London/Warsaw) — $11B. Voice AI. (Full disclosure: this podcast’s co-host runs on it.)
• Vinted (Vilnius) — $9.3B. The Baltic answer: the region’s biggest tech company has no ticker at all.

What the list actually shows

1. Europe’s top layer is suppliers, not platforms. ASML, ARM, Infineon, ASM, Besi — the shovels of the digital gold rush. Consumer attention (search, social, OS, app stores) is entirely absent.
2. The younger and faster a European tech company, the more likely it lists in New York. Spotify, Klarna, Wise, ARM, IQM, Nebius. The pattern holds across fintech, media, quantum and cloud.
3. „European“ is a legal fiction the moment you look closely. Swedish operations, UK plc, NYSE ticker (Klarna). Norwegian robots, Bermuda registration (AutoStore). Estonian founders, Jersey holding, Nasdaq listing (Wise).
4. A European tech ETF therefore doesn’t measure where Europe builds technology. It measures where Europe owns it. Those are different maps.

WKNs marked * were compiled from standard identifier databases and should be verified. Not investment advice.