Mitsotakis pitches Greece: approximately €36 billion towards digitization

The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently gave a presentation in San Francisco to an audience of about 250 tech entrepreneurs, investors, and operators. During this pitch, he positioned Greece as an attractive destination for tech companies, while also expressing his concerns about developments in artificial intelligence. Mitsotakis was in the Bay Area for an exploratory visit and to promote collaborations, with a planned participation in the UN General Assembly in New York later this week.

In his address, Mitsotakis acknowledged that he could not answer many questions surrounding AI, despite the efforts of world leaders to address this complex topic. In response to the rise of AI chatbots, he argued that these technologies can be potentially addictive and that legislation often comes too late. Greece has also introduced new rules, including a ban on social media for children under 15 years old. At the same time, initiatives are being developed in education to integrate AI, such as a pilot project with OpenAI aimed at easing administrative tasks for teachers.

A significant portion of the approximately €36 billion from the European COVID recovery fund is aimed at improving Greece's digital infrastructure. This enables the Greek population to perform many governmental tasks online. Within months, a new supercomputer will go online in Lavrio, which, with support from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, will contribute to AI and scientific research. Additionally, the government is passing new legislation to attract talent, including easing labor laws and tax benefits for returning Greeks. In light of tightened immigration criteria in the US, Mitsotakis sees opportunities for attracting foreign labor to Greece.

Greece is also actively working on attracting investments in data centers. Microsoft is currently building a cluster of data centers near Athens, while AWS has presented plans for the country's largest data center in a former coal region. Mitsotakis also painted an economic picture of Greece, which is able to pay off its debt at a record pace and can borrow cheaper than the United States, with a ten-year yield of approximately 4.3 percent. All of this is happening at a time when MSCI is considering reclassifying Greece as a developed market next year.

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