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The G20 structure consists of ministerial meetings, working and engagement groups; during two days this September, the innovation technology’s ministerial meeting took place in North Caroline, US. The G20 “digital and innovation ministers” released a voluntary consensus statement recognizing that “emerging technologies have the potential to unlock prosperity, enhance productivity and expand opportunity for all people.” The EU has shown its impetus to the world-wide digital transition.
Background
The G20 Innovation Ministerial meeting’s statement articulated the shared principles across six pillars: pro-innovation policy frameworks; technology for opportunity and prosperity; skilled technical workforce development; intellectual property policies for artificial intelligence; AI for standards and standards for AI; the industrial innovation and investment in supply chains (more on pillars below). Ministers also reached consensus on the Carolina Principles for Emerging Technologies (called after the venue of the present G20 meeting), which called on countries to invest in foundational research, strengthen commercialization pathways, and enable trusted technology adoption and deployment.
More on the G20 Innovation Ministerial Statement in:
https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/G20-INNOVATION-MINISTERIAL-STATEMENT-Pillars%20I-VI.pdf
The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick said that the consensus was reached on a vital issue “of innovation as a driver of growth” at a “historic moment of unity”. The statement by the G20 members ministers gives entrepreneurs the confidence to invest in their ideas, promotes domestic manufacturing and ensures intellectual property frameworks foster and protect innovation. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, OSTP noted that the ministers form G20 countries “realized an optimistic vision for the future of emerging technologies, recognizing that flexible policy frameworks crafted to promote innovation would drive economic growth and prosperity”. He also added, that “it is the spirit of the Carolina Principles, showing the ways to expand opportunities” for people around the world.
At the Innovation Ministerial meeting, the OSTP Director hosted the so-called “fireside chats” with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; David Sacks, Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems; Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder and Chair of Google DeepMind; Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Meta; and Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University.
The US Commerce Secretary hosted the same type of “fireside chats” with Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA; Tom Brown, Co-Founder of Anthropic; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; and Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir.
Other deliverables of the Ministerial meeting included AI’s “prosperity issues”: voluntary objectives and the compact; both are expected to “further technical workforce development across G20 nations and expand opportunities for private sector partnerships”.
More in the Prosperity Compact: https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/THE-AI-PROSPERITY-COMPACT.pdf
Concluding “pillars”
The G20 has called on the member states to “develop their own policies and preserve national sovereignty in the governance of emerging technologies, while allowing for engagement in international discussions”. The following pillars were suggested:
= Pillar 1: Pro-Innovation Policy Framework. AI models have promised to power a new era of industry by enhancing productivity, competitiveness and scientific progress. AI has the potential to accelerate industrialization, reindustrialization and economic growth, revitalize factory floors, and energize SMEs. The rapid advancement of AI will have implications for the workforce, driving demand for new skills across industries and creating high-quality jobs. With effective policies, legal frameworks, investments and support, underpinned by sector-specific, risk-based approaches to AI deployment, the AI can create opportunities for workers, innovators, apprentices and students preparing to enter the labor market. AI has the potential to serve as a powerful tool for augmentation, unlocking new levels of creativity, economic opportunity and productivity that allows workers and innovators to adapt, to thrive and lead in the 21st century economy.
= Pillar 2: Technology for Opportunity and Prosperity. The G20 recognized that secure and trustworthy AI has significant potential to raise living standards and improve the quality, efficiency and accessibility of public services across states’ economies, thereby benefiting all peoples. The G20 acknowledged its previous work on AI, including the G20 AI Principles. The public sector adoption of AI, consistent with applicable legal frameworks and domestic circumstances, can help deliver better outcomes in areas such as healthcare, education, transportation, disaster and emergency management, public administration and other essential services.
= Pillar 3: Skilled Technical Workforce Development. The rapid advancement of AI and other emerging technologies will have implications for the workforce, driving demand for new skills and abilities across industries. With effective policies, applicable legal frameworks, investments and support, emerging technologies can create opportunities for workers, innovators and students preparing to enter the global labor market. AI serves as a powerful tool for augmentation, unlocking new levels of creativity, economic opportunity and productivity that allow workers not just to adapt, but to thrive and lead in the 21st-century economy.
= Pillar 4: Intellectual Property Policies for Artificial Intelligence. The G20 recognized that intellectual property’s frameworks (IP) can support innovators, rightsholders and creators while preserving opportunities for AI development and deployment, helping to sustain the investment necessary for continued AI progress and the production of creative works and inventions by humans. As AI technologies continue to evolve, the Group recognized the importance of continuing to study how existing IP frameworks apply to this rapidly developing technology to enable human-centric innovation and growth for all peoples.
= Pillar 5: AI for Standards and Standards for AI. The G20 recognized that standards can unleash innovation, support technical interoperability, and enhance economic growth and development when they foster open, fair, non-discriminatory and transparent market competition. The ministers affirmed that technical standards and regulations should provide investment certainty and regulatory predictability, drive sustained economic growth and avoid creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade. The Group recognized the important role of open, transparent and inclusive development of standards in supporting the SME’s ability to participate in international trade.
= Pillar 6: Industrial Innovation and Investment in Supply Chains. The G20 recognized that industrial supply chains are increasingly complex and interconnected, as well as that resilient, diversified supply chains support global productivity and represent a cornerstone of long-term economic growth and stability, job creation and security. Systemic vulnerabilities in these supply chains should be addressed through international collaboration. Hence, the states should seek to improve transparency and sharing information through data free flow with trust, including to ensure data protection and privacy, while respecting applicable domestic as well as international legal frameworks to support more resilient supply chains, and through enhanced access to relevant non-sensitive data on global production capacity to enable accurate risk assessments and real-time disruption monitoring.
Reference and citations from the “prosperity objectives” in: https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/THE-G20-AI-PROSPERITY-OBJECTIVES.pdf
The EU’s impetus for the G20 ministerial meeting
The EU has been represented by two Commission’s Executive Vice-Presidents – Henna Virkkunen, responsible for technological sovereignty and security, and Valdis Dombrovskis, in charge of economy, productivity, implementation and simplification. The Commissioners are underlining the European ambition to lead in AI through major investment in computing infrastructure and deployment, including €200 billion mobilised under InvestAI, 19 AI Factories and upcoming AI gigafactories. They also stressed that trust and innovation must go hand in hand, and called for greater international cooperation and interoperability to avoid regulatory fragmentation and support companies operating across borders.
The EU representatives have held a series of bilateral meetings, e.g. with the Director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Minister of Science and Technology Policy of Japan, the Minister of Industry and Technology of Türkiye, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology of India, and the Secretary of Economy of Mexico, to name a few.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/executive-vice-president-virkkunen-us-g20-ministerial-meetings
On EU’s “invest” in the digital initiatives
At the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris (2025), Commission President has launched Invest Ai’s initiative to mobilise €200 billion for investment in AI, including a new European fund of €20 billion for AI gigafactories. The EU’s efforts represent different aspects of artificial intelligence, such as security, mechanics, cloud computing and privacy. This large AI infrastructure is needed to allow open, collaborative development of the most complex AI models and to making Europe an important “AI continent”.
On Invest AI in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/eu-launches-investai-initiative-mobilise-eu200-billion-investment-artificial-intelligence
On European AI factories
AI Factories are dynamic ecosystems that foster innovation, collaboration, and development in the field of artificial intelligence. They bring together computing power, data, and talent to create cutting-edge AI models and applications. They foster collaboration across Europe, linking supercomputing centres, universities, SMEs, industries and financial actors. AI factories are hubs driving advancements in AI applications across various sectors such as health, manufacturing, climate, finance, space, etc. The Commission has identified the establishment of AI Factories as a strategic priority, as was announced in the 2024 AI Innovation Package.
The AI Continent Action Plan reinforces EU investment in AI factories. Currently, 19 AI factories and 13 Antennas (associated to AI-optimised supercomputers in existing AI factories) are being set up. They will enable the pan-EU AI ecosystem and promoting growth by prioritising access for AI startups and SMEs. In this context, at least 9 new AI optimised supercomputers will be procured and deployed across the EU. This will more than triple the current EuroHPC AI computing capacity.
On AI Factories in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/ai-factories
Besides, the “regular” AI factories, the EU has initiated the gigafactories, which are large-scale facilities dedicated to the development and training of next-generation AI models containing trillions of parameters. To achieve this, the AI gigafactories will bring together computing power – over 100,000 advanced AI processors – and a strong emphasis on power capacity, reliable supply chains, advanced networking, energy efficiency and AI-driven automation. The AI gigafactories will combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres. Together with Europe’s network of 19 AI factories, they will strengthen Europe’s technological leadership, resilience and strategic autonomy.
The initiative will ensure that Europe can develop advanced AI on its own infrastructure, in line with EU rules and values. AI technologies developed in the AI gigafactories will follow EU standards on data protection, safety, security and ethics.
More in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/eu-launches-ai-gigafactories-call-boost-europes-computing-capacity-and-unlock-more-eu30-billion