South Summit defends AI as an opportunity in its 15th edition and calls for a more competitive Europe

The fifteenth edition of South Summit Madrid, co-organized by IE University, kicked off this morning at La Nave, in an event chaired by its president and founder, María Benjumea, in which she highlighted the role of Artificial Intelligence as a driver of business transformation and claimed the need for Europe to move towards a more agile and competitive environment for its startups. "Artificial Intelligence is not a threat but a tool to grow and improve. Europe must remove the obstacles that push companies to leave for the US," Benjumea said during the opening.

Under the slogan AI Convergence, South Summit Madrid 2026 reaffirms the role of AI at the center of a new stage for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. As María Benjumea highlighted  during the inauguration, "AI is no longer an isolated technology but a cross-cutting axis that redefines industries, business models and strategic capabilities".

During his speech, Benjumea recalled that, in just three years, "Artificial Intelligence has gone from capturing 30% of the world's venture capital investment to 61%", an evolution that, in his opinion, shows that "this is not just another technological change, it is a paradigm shift". Faced with this scenario, Benjumea has defended that Europe has the necessary talent to compete in this new stage, although he has also warned of the need to eliminate barriers to boost business growth, stressing the importance of advancing in initiatives such as the European Commission's Regime 28. "A startup born in Spain has to be able to think of Europe as its natural home, not as 27 different borders. It is not about retaining companies, but about them not having to go abroad to grow," he added.

Precisely, South Summit's commitment  to the development of this technology is reflected in the AI Forum, a new space designed by IE University to build or transform companies and develop prototypes in just three hours with the accompaniment of AI experts. As Benjumea explained, this project is born from an increasingly evident reality: "Artificial Intelligence has radically shortened the distance between an idea and starting to build. This tool does not replace criteria or vision, but it does shorten times, accelerate and transform an idea into something tangible." With this initiative, South Summit reinforces its role as a global meeting point for business, innovation and investment, while promoting spaces where ideas can become real projects.

Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, has been in charge of inaugurating this new edition of South Summit, announcing grants of 162 million for dual-use technologies, aimed at research and testing infrastructures in Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors and robotics. The minister highlighted the strengths of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem with the following words: "the OECD has just revised Spain's growth upwards from 2.1% to 2.2%, while reducing the forecasts for the rest of the countries. That is no coincidence: it is the result of a country's commitment to digital and ecological transformation." In addition, the minister emphasised that "Spain has the best connectivity in Europe: more than 96% fibre optic coverage and close to 94% 5G. That is one of the reasons why we are leaders in attracting new investments."

López also stressed that "Spain has already allocated 1,500 million euros to its Artificial Intelligence strategy and we are the first country in the European Union in the supervision and development of reliable and open AI. One million SMEs and the self-employed have received aid to go digital. This public investment has been key to preparing Spain to compete in the technologies of the future".

Lee Newman, Dean of IE Business School at IE University, also participated in the opening ceremony, stressing that "we are facing an unprecedented opportunity to undertake and create value. AI enables small teams to operate with the agility, reach, and impact of much larger organizations. For the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem, and for all those who want to drive change, the question is no longer whether it is possible, but how far they want to go, what their goal is."

The most influential entrepreneurs, in #SouthSummit26

South Summit will be until next Friday, June 5, the meeting point for the most influential leaders of the entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem in the world. With more than 600 international speakers, 20,000 attendees, around 4,900 participating startups and more than 2,000 investors, family offices, venture builders, corporations and institutions, the objective will be to address how Artificial Intelligence is changing the way we see the world.  

One of the highlights of the opening day was led by Kim Perell, one of the most authoritative voices in the entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem, a benchmark in Silicon Valley, author of three best sellers and investor in more than 100 startups around the world. 

In her talk entitled Mistakes that Made Me a Millionaire, Perell has told her personal experience of becoming a billionaire before the age of 30, giving a twist to the perspective of failure and demonstrating that every mistake is a valuable lesson. "When I look back, it's amazing to see how far I've come, but the reality is that it was the mistakes that contributed the most to my success. Before advancing to the next level, you'll make mistakes, fail, get rejected, and want to give up. However, I discovered that mistakes did not break me, but made me stronger," he said.

Perell has founded nine successful startups, selling the last one for $235 million. On his personal experience, he stressed that "entrepreneurship is not about having a great idea, but about the discipline of executing and moving forward even when you don't have all the answers. If you wait until you feel 100% ready, you'll probably never start."

The meeting will feature, until next Friday, June 5, the prominent presence of global leaders of the ecosystem such as: Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister; Sebastian Thrun, founder of GoogleX, or Anna Hartvigsen, co-founder of Female Invest. In addition, there was an important institutional presence by His Majesty King Felipe VI; the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martinez-Almeida, and the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. 

#SouthSummit26 has the institutional support of the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, the Community of Madrid and the Madrid City Council, as well as Mutua Madrileña, Google for Startups, BBVA Spark, Wayra – Telefónica Innovation and BStartup of Banco Sabadell.

For South Summit Madrid 2026 press accreditations

If you want to attend South Summit Madrid 2026 as an accredited media, send us your name, surname, medium, e-mail, telephone, date of birth, DNI/Passport number and country of origin to: pablo.gomez@trescom.es; ignacio.crespo@trescom.es 

About South Summit

South Summit is the global platform that brings together all the actors in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to promote the development of business opportunities among all of them. Its main meeting is South Summit Madrid, co-organized by IE University, which will hold its next edition between June 3 and 5 at La Nave.  Throughout its fourteen previous editions, South Summit has brought together more than 42,500 startups, while the Startup Competition has resulted in more than 1,500 finalist startups, with a survival rate of 85% and more than 20,500 million dollars in investment raised. 

After passing through Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina, South Summit held its fifth edition in Brazil, also co-organized by IE University, in March 2026. This latest edition brought together more than 24,000 attendees from 70 countries, as well as more than 800 global leaders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, 7,000 corporations, 3,000 startups and more than 1,000 investors with an investment portfolio of 250,000 million euros.

For more information: https://www.southsummit.io/e/madrid/ 

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