In recent months, several proposals have emerged, ranging from the so-called "robot tax" to the "token tax", including extraordinary taxes on profits generated by AI companies. The discussion is legitimate. Any technological transformation creates new economic realities, and it is natural that tax systems seek to adapt. The problem is not in the discussion itself. The problem is in the moment it happens.

When looking at what is happening in Portugal and Europe, I cannot help but wonder if we are not repeating an overly European pattern. Instead of focusing first on creating scale, attracting investment, developing companies and building technological leadership, we start by discussing how to tax an industry that we are still trying to develop.

The reality is that Europe continues to lag behind its main global competitors. The largest artificial intelligence models are American. The largest chipmakers are American or Asian. The largest technology platforms continue to be concentrated outside the European continent. At the same time, we are witnessing a global race to build data centres, digital infrastructure, and computing capacity that will define much of the economic competitiveness of the next decade.

Portugal, curiously, is positioning itself in a very interesting way in this new context. The arrival of the AWS sovereign cloud, the installation of Furiosa AI in Lisbon, the development of large data centre projects in Sines and the Iberian application for the European Artificial Intelligence gigafactory show that there is a real opportunity for the country to participate in this transformation. For the first time in many years, Portugal is not only consuming technology developed by others. It is creating conditions to integrate the value chain of the digital economy.

That is precisely why the debate on new taxes deserves to be looked at carefully.

If a company invests hundreds of millions of euros in data centres, should it be penalised for having computing power? If a startup develops innovative solutions based on artificial intelligence, should it face new layers of taxation before reaching scale? And if Europe creates a heavier tax environment than its global competitors, where will the next investments go?

These are not ideological questions. These are strategic questions.

Economic history shows us that large growth cycles rarely arise in overly complex or unpredictable environments. Capital seeks stability, seeks scale, and seeks return. When a sector is still at an early stage of development, what usually accelerates investment is not new taxes, but conditions for growth.

This does not mean that Artificial Intelligence should exist in a regulatory or fiscal vacuum. On the contrary. Technology will inevitably have impacts on the labour market, productivity, and wealth creation. At some point, there will certainly be room to discuss taxation models appropriate to this new economy. But perhaps today's priority should be different.

Perhaps the priority should be to create European champions.

Perhaps the priority should be to accelerate innovation.

Perhaps the priority should be to ensure that companies, universities and research centres can compete globally.

When we look at what is happening in Portugal, we realise that there is a rare window of opportunity. We have competitive renewable energy, internationally recognised talent, a strategic geographical position and a technological ecosystem that is finally gaining dimension. The challenge is not to stop this dynamic. It is to expand it.

Because the real risk for Europe is not that Artificial Intelligence generates excessive wealth. The real risk is that this wealth will be created on other continents while we continue to discuss how to tax it.

The next decade will be defined by the ability to create, develop, and scale technology. The countries that manage to position themselves in this cycle will be the ones that will create qualified employment, attract investment and increase their productivity.

Portugal seems to have finally realised this.

The question is whether Europe will also understand in time.