Prosus CEO Bloisi ready to invest $20 billion in Europe’s tech landscape

Key points.$20 billion available for investments aimed at boosting European tech growth.Bloisi cites the US AI strategy as a wake-up call for Europe's tech ecosystem.Prosus plans to focus on opportunities in Europe, India, and Latin America..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here..If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Loni Prinsloo and Francine Lacqua .Prosus NV Chief Executive Officer Fabricio Bloisi said the technology investor has close to $20 billion to spend and is ready to grow in Europe. .Bloisi runs both Amsterdam-based Prosus and Naspers Ltd., its South African parent, and the companies already hold significant stakes in European companies including Germany's Delivery Hero SE. Still, most of its deals in recent months have been in historically higher-growth markets, such as an initial public offering in India and a $1.7 billion deal for a travel agency in Brazil. ."We need to invest substantially more here to put Europe in this race and not to keep looking for an outsider," Bloisi said in a Bloomberg TV in an interview at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. "Our ecosystem in Europe is ready to grow, and we are ready to invest." .Bloisi was promoted to the CEO role last year and has been charged with finding new sources of growth after an early investment in Chinese video game behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd. ended up dominating the company's books and skewing its market value. He said Prosus is ready to invest closer to home and called President Donald Trump's moves to make the US a superpower in artificial intelligence a "wake up call" for Europe. ."In Davos last year, the big thing was, 'How we can avoid moving too fast on AI?'," he said. "The Trump administration has moved the narrative to, 'We are going to move faster than anyone else."'.Trump this week rescinded President Joe Biden's AI safety measures and announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure joint venture led by SoftBank Group Corp., OpenAI and Oracle Corp. .Prosus is also interested in seeking partners in the infrastructure around European AI, Bloisi said. .Prosus, through Naspers, made a blockbuster investment in Chinese game-maker Tencent in 2001, when it paid $34 million for a 50% stake. Today, it owns about a quarter of the company, which has a total market value of about $450 billion. ."Prosus's play is not China," Bloisi said. "Prosus's play is a shareholder of a Chinese company. But where we invest and where we want to grow is in Europe, India, Latin America, Africa, and that's where we are investing.".Read also:.SoftBank alumnus replaces Van Dijk (51) today as Naspers/Prosus CEO leaves "by mutual agreementProsus e-commerce turns profitable ahead of CEO change🔒 Meet Fabricio Bloisi: The new Prosus and Naspers CEO

Prosus CEO Bloisi ready to invest $20 billion in Europe’s tech landscape

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