Germany’s economy was set to rebound. But soaring energy prices have derailed Europe's biggest comeback
Posted by anarchyart2021@reddit | EndlessWar | View on Reddit | 4 comments
exoriare@reddit
Germany was never about to experience a "comeback" - at best it had flat-lined. When you double defense spending over 3 years and you don't even manage to goose GDP by same amount you're stimulating, it's effectively a negative return.
The one "bright" spot was that German companies were starting to recognize how far behind they were with AI, so non-energy intensive manufacturers were starting to invest more in AI. Their hope is that this spending will allow them to cut spending even more elsewhere. What makes this worse for Germany than the US is that Germany (and Europe) doesn't have any major AI players. Even the spending on data centers is avoiding Germany as much as possible due to the higher energy prices and volatility.
To add insult to injury, Germany's biggest software players are the SAPs and industrial control software that's a huge target for AI. Their biggest players are obsolete and have no path to catch-up - hence why SAP is down a third over year.
Germany's shittiness is fundamental and based on core assumptions. It won't be fixed until those assumptions are revisited and addressed in a less sociopathic manner.
ZhukovWonWWII@reddit
Could it be that Nordstream was destroyed as a chess move to prevent future AI aspirations?
exoriare@reddit
Europe is too risk averse to develop revolutionary tech like AI. They are great at refining tech that's already well-established, but its not by accident that Europe lacks a single tech giant.
Nordstream was about closing a door so that Germany was no longer tempted to seek a rapprochement with Russia.
ZhukovWonWWII@reddit
I meant more than just rapprochement, more in the way of ensuring it would never have energy security. Can't even refine and improve AI models without reliable steady sources of energy to feed the data centers.