The $500B Opportunity in Europe’s Defense Buildout

Europe is preparing to mobilize up to €800B in additional defense spending. But money alone doesn't solve one of its biggest problems.After decades of underinvestment, Europe's defense industry needs to dramatically increase its ability to manufacture at scale. Component lead times can stretch into years, certain contracts can take 4–5 years to deliver and modern warfare increasingly requires systems produced in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions. As Aistis Šimaitis puts it, “Volume wins.”I sat down in Monaco with Aistis, Co-Founder & CEO of Onodrim and former head of Palantir's commercial business in Europe, George Hadjiminas, Chief Strategy Officer at Theon International & EFA Group, and Bruno Wejchert, Partner at Strike Capital.We get into› How Ukraine exposed the gaps in Europe's defense industrial base› Why manufacturing and volume matter as much as new technology› Why autonomous warfare requires dramatically cheaper components at massive scale› Why George believes “prototypes don't fight wars”› Bruno's prediction that Europe could produce a $500B defense company within the next decadeThe conversation covers everything from autonomous systems and defense procurement to the lessons Aistis took from Palantir and why George believes “prototypes don't fight wars.” As billions flow into European defense, the question is increasingly not just who can build the best technology, but who can actually manufacture and deliver it at scale.Recorded at the Strike x Sourcery Summit in the South of France.Aistis Šimaitis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aistissimaitisGeorge Hadjiminas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgioshadjiminasBruno Wejchert : https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-jan-wejchert-00b46a1a6Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube: https://youtu.be/X_1wGD6nxbo 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery • Zone—develops next-generation data center campuses, partnering with AI companies, site developers and technology leaders to bring compute online faster and at scale. Visit: https://zonefrontier.com   • Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery • VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com  • Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into