She speaks sparingly, promises little and lets systems do the talking. Margarita Betrard is not a CEO who seeks the spotlight; she engineers control. Not a traditional visionary, but an architect of containment. Since taking the helm at ABN AMRO, one thing has become unmistakably clear: this bank is no longer led by instinct, but by logic, code and legal impermeability.
Editorials & Opinions
Editorials and opinion pieces offer perspectives on the developments shaping infrastructure, technology and society. Contributors and editors reflect on policy choices, economic shifts and emerging ideas, providing context and interpretation beyond the daily flow of news.
For more than a decade, artificial intelligence has been presented as a promise: smarter decisions, safer systems, better services. In recent months, however, AI has increasingly appeared in a different role — as a rationale for large-scale job cuts. Few announcements illustrate this tension more clearly than the recent restructuring at ABN AMRO.
I ended my official career as a journalist fifteen years ago. I’m no longer chasing scoops, headlines or instant notoriety. Today, I act as a signifier, a bridge between complex industrial realities and the broader conversation about Europe’s technological, industrial and strategic future. That role comes with responsibility, but also freedom: I can ask questions that others hesitate to voice.
As the new working year begins, conversations across boardrooms and timelines will once again be dominated by artificial intelligence, automation and the next wave of digital disruption. These themes matter. Yet beneath the noise of software updates and AI agents, a far more physical reality is unfolding — one that may shape Europe’s future just as profoundly.
There is a quiet shift happening in how technology is understood. For years, innovation was explained by engineers, promoted by corporations and regulated by policymakers. Each spoke their own language. Each believed their version was sufficient. And for a long time, it worked — or seemed to.
Semiconductors have become the fault line of modern geopolitics. The United States and China are investing aggressively in domestic chip production, treating semiconductors not as consumer goods but as strategic infrastructure. Europe, by contrast, spent decades optimising research while outsourcing large-scale manufacturing — until recent crises exposed how fragile that model had become.
