From AI to blockbuster weight-loss drugs, Europe’s forward-thinking companies punch above their weight. For the first time, Fortune analyzed the top companies across the continent in partnership with Statista to find the standouts that are driving progress with success.

Wearing his signature biker jacket and mobbed by fans for selfies, the Nvidia CEO cut the figure of a tech rockstar as he took the stage at VivaTech in Paris. “AI is the greatest equalizer of people the world has ever created,” Huang said, kicking off one of Europe’s biggest technology industry fairs.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder — and that seems to be the case with European demand for funds that invest in artificial intelligence. According to Morningstar, the largest market for funds that invest in AI and big data are in Europe,

American AI giant Anthropic aims to boost the European tech ecosystem as it expands on the continent, product chief Mike Krieger told AFP Thursday at the Vivatech trade fair in Paris.

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang projected that Europe’s artificial-intelligence computing capacity will increase by a factor of ten over the next two years, with more than 20 so-called AI factories in the works.

NVIDIA builds Europe's first industrial AI cloud in Germany with 10,000 GPUs. How this facility will transform European manufacturing and smart factories

The EU’s law is comprehensive, and puts regulatory responsibility on developers of AI to mitigate risk of harm by the systems, reviewed by EU officials.

From generative AI to autonomous vehicles, European tech startups are breaking new ground — and grappling with the challenges posed by US tariffs, hostility to the continent's regulatory regime and fierce competition from China.