Kamal Ghorui
Siemens is not happy with European Union (EU) regulations related to artificial intelligence (AI). Europe’s biggest engineering company has reportedly threatened to direct a larger share of its AI investments away from EU countries toward the US and China. The company’s CEO, Roland Busch, cited Europe’s restrictive regulations as the reason for this decision. In an interview at the Hanover trade fair, Busch said that most of the company’s €1 billion ($1.2 billion) investment in industrial AI will be directed to the US due to Europe’s regulatory challenges, Bloomberg reported. “I can’t explain to my shareholders why I’m investing money in an environment where I’m being held back,” he said.Busch said that the EU’s AI Act and Data Act “miss the mark” by treating industrial AI the same as consumer applications, adding layers of oversight to areas already governed by sector-specific rules. “It’s complete nonsense to treat industrial and machine data the same way as personal data,” Busch added in the interview.
EU AI regulations face criticism as Siemens, policymakers call for reforms
Criticism of the EU’s AI regulation has been growing lately. Industry leaders and policymakers have warned that complex and overlapping rules could slow innovation and affect competitiveness in the global AI landscape, the report adds. Concerns have been raised that the EU’s current framework creates compliance challenges, particularly for industrial companies already operating under existing sector-specific regulations.For example, engineering companies already need to comply with the EU Machinery Regulation, which requires them to assess and manage risks linked to autonomous systems. Critics argue that additional AI-focused rules add further layers of oversight, making compliance more demanding.In response to feedback from European and American technology companies and EU member states, the European Commission proposed changes in November 2025 to ease the regulatory burden. These include delaying the implementation of rules for high-risk AI systems by up to 16 months, simplifying cybersecurity incident reporting, and relaxing certain data protection requirements to support AI training.However, Siemens CEO Roland Busch highlighted that these proposed adjustments do not go far enough to reduce the burden on companies. Apart from this, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also voiced support for revising the framework, stating that his government would push “for extricating industrial AI from the current, overly restrictive straitjacket of the EU’s regulatory framework.”“We simply cannot proceed as was once envisioned in Brussels many years ago — at a time when the sheer scale and scope of AI applications were not even remotely anticipated,” Merz added.Amid this debate, Siemens continues to expand its AI capabilities. The company recently introduced its Eigen Engineering Agent, an AI system designed to perform tasks in industrial automation, including generating code and configuring systems. Siemens said the technology could improve productivity by up to 50%.The company’s broader shift toward software, which began with its acquisition of UGS Corp in 2007, remains a key part of its strategy. Software now contributes more than a third of revenue in its Digital Industries unit, although it is not reported separately.
