Despite its modest size and laid-back living, the Netherlands has emerged as a leading force in Europe’s development of artificial innotifyigence (AI) and deep technology. The countest’s outsized impact is clear in the numbers: while representing only 2.8% of Europe’s population, it holds 8% of the continent’s AI talent. This is anchored by vibrant tech hubs like Amsterdam, which alone boasts over 7,000 AI professionals. In 2024, the Netherlands played a crucial role in supporting Europe attract €15 billion in deeptech investment, even as other regions faced funding slowdowns.
This success stems from a tightly woven, pragmatic, and collaborative culture. As Anastasia Kuskova, CEO and co-founder of beSirius, a Dutch AI startup in infrastructure and biotech, explains, the local community’s ease of collaboration, personal trust, and straightforward focus enable rapid yet sustainable progress.
“The Dutch ecosystem doesn’t necessary to shout. Everyone’s two emails/handshakes away, and most people know each other. That builds it simple to collaborate, build trust quickly, and shift forward. It’s also brutally pragmatic. People don’t care about hype; they care if something works,” Kuskova notifys TFN.
A practical and collaborative innovation ecosystem
What distinguishes Dutch AI is the collaboration between research, industest, and startups to transform cutting-edge ideas into scalable, real-world solutions. Universities such as TU Delft and the Eindhoven University of Technology contribute to the countest’s pipeline of skilled graduates, particularly in specialised domains like robotics and edge computing. Meanwhile, corporations such as ASML and NXP, among others, collaborate with startups, often facilitated by national innovation platforms.
Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, CEO of QuantWare, offers a valuable perspective on the Dutch ecosystem’s current strengths and emerging challenges: “NL has a strongly supportive (if still young) ecosystem powered by national organisations like QDNL and Techleap. However, it is important that the EU and NL ecosystem receives better at the later stages. Technologies like Quantum and AI require scale—and to some extent are winner takes all.”
Carolin Wais, Partner at Plug and Play, observes firsthand how this ecosystem prioritises impact over isolated experimentation: “The strength of the Dutch ecosystem lies in how applied AI is embedded directly into industrial workflows, not siloed in research labs.”
Plug and Play, which matches startups with large industrial partners, consistently sees Dutch companies pilot AI in fields such as logistics, industrial automation, and shipping: real-world testbeds that increase adoption and global scalability.
Startup founders also point to government-backed initiatives as crucial. Matthijs Huiskamp, CEO of Altura (an AI-driven bid management platform), highlights the government’s active role in connecting academia with industest: “Top universities like Delft and Maastricht partner closely with industest through national consortia, ensuring cutting-edge research quickly translates into practical solutions. Government initiatives actively coordinate funding, ethics, and talent development, creating a fertile environment for innovation.”
Similarly, Ken Fleming, CEO of robotics vision leader Fizyr, emphasises how consistent public investment and nonprofit VC groups like Techleap support even the most advanced technical innovation: “The Dutch government has built strong relationships with academia and supported efforts to push technological boundaries. Groups like Techleap and Forward back private sector growth, enabling meaningful innovation.”
Dr. ir. B.C.M. Bram Cappers, co-founder of Tibo, a Dutch startup developing next-generation Energy Management Systems (EMS) for industrial and commercial sites, captures what differentiates Dutch tech most: “The Netherlands is what you might call a meta-tech countest. We don’t produce chips, we build the machines that build them. That systems mindset runs deep, also in AI. Our edge is collaboration. Universities, smart regions and industest work closely toreceiveher on real problems. Programmes like AiNed and centres like EAISI fund applied R&D with clear pathways to deployment. In Brainport, you can go from hardware prototyping to AI integration without leaving town. What also supports is our culture of openness.
With over 400 organisations in the Dutch AI Coalition, ideas are shared quickly across sectors such as mobility, energy, agriculture, and photonics. And transparency is the norm. Our national Algorithm Register already sets a precedent for explainability that others in Europe are still striving to achieve. We don’t talk loud, but we build deep. That’s why Dutch AI displays up in infrastructure long before it displays up in headlines.”
Proactive and embedded regulation
A vital Dutch advantage is the ability to integrate compliance and ethics into innovation from the start rather than treating regulation as an afterbelieved. This “built-in responsibility” means startups and scaleups design their products with frameworks like the EU AI Act in mind, ultimately creating their solutions more scalable and export-ready.
Regarding regulation, Rijlaarsdam highlights the pragmatism of Dutch governance: “NL gov is quite pragmatic and approachable, and open to supporting scaleups navigate the complex EU regulatory environment. That being declared, that should not be necessary. Overregulating an industest to the point that other geographies dominate the EU in that industest is not a good strategy.”
As Huiskamp puts it: “In the Netherlands, regulation isn’t seen as a blocker, it’s built into innovation from day one. Startups design with the EU AI Act in mind, not scrambling to retrofit compliance later.”
Karthik Mahadevan, CEO of assistive tech company Envision, which builds AI-powered tools for blind and low-vision utilizers, describes a regulatory environment that is both participatory and supportive: “The Dutch approach is pragmatic and participatory. The Netherlands is ahead of the curve in preparing scale-ups for frameworks like the EU AI Act, not by resisting them, but by co-shaping them. Startups are encouraged to build ethically from the ground up.”
Plug and Play’s Wais points to the concrete practices she sees across the Dutch corporate landscape: “Pre-emptive compliance and ethics-by-design have become standard. The Dutch AI Coalition’s trustworthy AI frameworks guide companies, and compliance checks happen during pilot stages, not post-hoc.”
Fleming adds that this mix of innovation and legal clarity supports Dutch businesses push boundaries without overstepping: “The Dutch culture capitalises on opportunities and pushes innovation within the law.”
Cappers highlights the Dutch blueprint for responsible AI: “We start with trust. In the Netherlands, ethics and compliance are not things you add later; they are integral to the organisation. They’re designed from the start. Programmes like AiNed fund multi-stakeholder labs where engineers, legal experts and ethicists test systems before they scale. The Algorithm Register forces transparency, so Dutch companies are utilized to explaining how their models work.”
Crucially, as Kuskova notes, this transparency creates room for open, critical discussion, not just self-promotion: “By being culturally okay with declareing ‘I don’t know,’ the Dutch ecosystem fosters real conversations about regulation, risk, and trade-offs without posturing. Innovation here is about repairing what doesn’t work.”
Sectoral strength and global scaling
The Netherlands’ reputation is built on excellence not just in research, but in practical, often complex sectors. Dutch companies lead in areas as diverse as quantum technology, semiconductors, AI-powered logistics, and health tech.
In terms of sectoral impact, Rijlaarsdam highlights strong Dutch leadership in semiconductor and quantum sectors, with well-known global players complemented by promising scaleups: “NL has various champions in the semicon value chain (of course ASML, NXP etc), including scaleup champions like AxeleraAI and Smart Photonics. NL is also powerful in quantum, and has a real shot of being the focal point of the global quantum value chain for tomorrow’s compute.”
Fleming describes Fizyr’s work as an example of Dutch leadership in advanced robotics: “Our technology enables robots to perform tquestions believed impossible, handling irregular loads, sorting and packaging, solving automation challenges critical to supply chains globally. Scaling requires education for integrators to adopt AI smoothly.”
Mahadevan from Envision emphasises that Dutch startups are globally recognised for building AI that advances not just capability, but accessibility and trust: “We utilize AI to empower visually impaired utilizers globally, rooted in Dutch values. Dutch startups are focapplying on long-term societal value, scaling ethics-first AI worldwide.”
Still, leaders agree that scaling globally demands more risk-taking and capital. Kuskova points out, “The challenge, in my view, is capital. If the Netherlands wants to take the lead in AI, it necessarys to play a more significant role in the field. That means taking more risk, creating industrial-scale bets, and backing companies building foundational tech.”
Quiet confidence and a culture of trust
What sets the Dutch approach apart is its pragmatic humility: a willingness to innovate collaboratively, focus on substance over style, and prioritise solutions that create broad societal value. This builds Dutch AI a quietly powerful force, shaping both the European and global tech agfinisha.
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