AWS survey: Nearly 4 in 10 European startups are considering relocating out of the region

AWS survey: Nearly 4 in 10 European startups are considering relocating out of the region

Nearly 4 in 10 European startups are considering relocating out of the region in order to scale, and among the fastest-growing it is more than half — according to an AWS survey cited by the company's Europe chief Tanuja Randery in a Reuters interview. The warning, which also points to regulatory costs she estimates at up to 40 cents per euro, comes in the middle of the debate over the EU's AI Act and the continent's power and energy constraints.

What is new

Tanuja Randery, managing director of AWS in EMEA, warned on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, that regulatory hurdles, a lack of funding and gaps in workforce skills are driving European startups to consider relocating — with the risk that the region's most promising new companies disappear en masse. That is according to Reuters, which interviewed her for the Global Markets Forum (SRN News/Reuters).

The interview lands amid an ongoing European debate about AI competitiveness, and it gives the cloud giant AWS a clear voice in the question of how tight Europe's AI regulation should be.

The numbers — and where they come from

All the key figures in this story come from Randery herself or from an AWS survey she cited:

• Nearly 4 in 10 European startups would consider leaving the region in order to scale, Randery said, citing an AWS survey of companies. "Among the fastest-growing, it is more than half," she said.
• Up to 40 cents of every euro can go to regulatory compliance instead of technology, she claimed: "European businesses are telling us that they could spend as much as 40 cents to every euro on regulatory compliance instead of technology. Imagine if that was reinvested in technology."
• More than half of European businesses use AI, but according to Randery only one in five has a clear AI strategy, has an AI governance model, and has invested in processes that would fundamentally transform their operations.

Note that this is a cloud giant with a commercial interest in the matter: AWS sells cloud and AI infrastructure, and the argument that Europe should regulate less and invest more in technology also serves that business model. The AWS survey's methodology, sample size and dates have not been published in the material available, so all the figures stand as the company's claims — not independently verified measurements.

Reuters' independent framing

It is worth separating Randery's claims from what Reuters itself establishes as context. The news agency writes that while the tech giants are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into cutting-edge research and the buildout of AI infrastructure, Europe's effort is constrained by the EU's AI Act — widely seen as the world's most stringent AI regulatory framework. Severe energy and power grid constraints are also hampering progress, according to Reuters.

That means two of the three pressures Randery points to — regulation and the energy situation — have support in independent reporting, while the extent of startups' willingness to relocate is documented only through AWS's own figures.

Randery's argument: speed and safety, not either-or

The core of Randery's message was a call for pace. "We need to go faster in Europe… It isn't about progress versus safety. It's an 'and,' not an 'or,'" she said.

It is a familiar position in European technology policy, but it carries extra weight when it comes from someone who runs Amazon's business in the region — and when it is tied to concrete relocation threats from startups, the very companies European policymakers most want to keep.

What the warning actually establishes

The most important caveat: the evidence concerns stated intentions, not actual relocations. The survey says that startups would consider leaving the region — not that they have done so or have concrete plans to. The gap between intention and action is large, especially in surveys of this kind where respondents know the answers may be used politically.

In addition, there is the methodological question: without knowledge of the sample, how many were asked, when and how, it is impossible to assess how representative the figures are. The survey's question wording, for example, may have pushed the answers toward AWS's conclusion.

Open questions

Three things remain unresolved after this interview. First: what did the AWS survey actually measure, and how robust is it? Second: will any of these relocation intentions actually materialize into a documented outflow of startups? Third: how do European policymakers respond — either by recalibrating the AI Act or with the counterargument that strict regulation creates trust that genuinely helps European companies?

Until more independent documentation exists, Randery's warning stands as a clearly marked interest position in one of Europe's most consequential policy debates — not as established fact that the exodus is already happening.