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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, has met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, where the pair announced a memorandum of understanding establishing a “strategic partnership” to develop artificial intelligence (AI) in Poland.
Poland’s “leadership, ambitions and talents” have “given it a new position in European innovation”, said Pichai, speaking alongside Tusk. “Today we are signing a memorandum on the use of artificial intelligence in energy, cybersecurity and other areas.”
Pichai cited estimates that generative AI could boost Poland’s GDP by 8% over the next decade. He also revealed that, as part of the agreement, Google would devote $5 million to helping train one million Poles in cyber skills over the next five years.
Tusk noted that Google had begun the process of setting up its Warsaw campus – which opened in 2015 – when he had previously served as prime minister. The firm has since invested billions of dollars in expanding its footprint in the country.
“When I invited Google to cooperate with Poland 11 years ago, I did not think that our cooperation would have such an impressive outcome as we have today,” he declared.
“[At] this campus, thousands of young people have had the chance to establish and run their startups,” said the prime minister. “Thanks to their own talents, but [also] thanks to the help of Google, they managed to attract a lot of money for their ideas.”
The prime minister said that the memorandum signed today between Google and the Polish Development Fund (PFR), a state-owned financial group, will “create a framework that will also enable greater investment involvement by Google in Poland”.
However, a number of commentators expressed scepticism about today’s announcement, in particular that it contained no concrete commitments by Google other than $5 million over five years for training.
“That’s $5 per Pole,” wrote Sylwia Czubkowska, a prominent Polish technology journalist. Another journalist, Szymon Jadczak, added that it amounts to less than 0.3% of Google’s revenue in Poland in 2023.
“They spend significantly more on coffee and cakes at Google than on the large investment proudly announced by the Polish Prime Minister,” tweeted Sławomir Mentzen, an opposition politician and candidate in this year’s presidential elections.
No więc wielka inwestycja Google w Polsce to "przeszkolenie 1 mln Polaków z AI za 5 mln dol." Czyli 5 dolarów na Polaka.
I tak oto zostaniemy na bank wielka potęgą bo AI ma w ciągu 10 lat ma nam dac 8 proc. PKB czuli ok 55 -69 mld euro. Ciekawe jaki algorytm to wyliczył xD pic.twitter.com/mPRq2iR0CI— Sylwia Czubkowska (@sylvcz) February 13, 2025
Today’s announcement comes three days after Tusk unveiled a new economic plan by his government that envisions investments in Poland rising to a record 700 billion zloty this year. However, critics also noted that his speech included no details of specific new policies.
In addition to today’s agreement with Google, Tusk has revealed that another announcement involving Microsoft will be made next week. Last year, Microsoft also pledged to offer free AI training to one million people in Poland.
Poland has increasingly attracted investment from tech giants. Last year, Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith declared the country to be “the place to grow your business”. He said that Poland in particular has the opportunity to establish itself as an “AI Valley”.
In 2021, Google itself opened a new $2 billion cloud data hub in Warsaw and said that it wanted to make the city the “cloud capital of Europe”. The previous year, Microsoft announced a $1 billion digital investment plan in Poland, including its first data centre in the region.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Source: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
