How Governments Are Winning the Tech Talent War: The EU Inc Proposal and European Startup Incorporation

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-01

Right now, dozens of countries are competing for digital nomads, and this rivalry grows fiercer by the year. But when governments talk about attracting talent, it usually boils down to visas. But visas are the very end of the funnel, and the conversation needs to start much earlier. Before someone applies for a visa, they have to want to move. They need a reason to choose your country over somewhere else. Some governments are getting much better at understanding this principle, and the most interesting examples look surprisingly similar to product-led companies. ### Dubai: A Vertically Integrated Talent Magnet Dubai, for instance, has been doing this for years. Viewing Dubai as a vertically integrated business reveals why one layer doesn’t need to capture all the profit on its own if it feeds a higher-margin business downstream. Cheap flights through Dubai function in the same way, encouraging layover passengers to step out and experience the city itself. Emirates itself can run at zero profit on the ticket, but as soon as a traveler exits the airport, especially if they stay for 24 hours, the broader Dubai economy makes its money. The same thinking can be applied to Tech talent. Dubai has introduced long-term visas for specific groups, including people working in technology and gaming. Some of these programs also have referral mechanics built into them, allowing high-earning residents to sponsor peers or members of their teams. There is, of course, nothing permanent about this advantage. I know people who have reconsidered Dubai after moving there. In the end, a product can lose users too. And it often does. ### Japan’s Shortcut and China’s High School Pipeline Japan has taken a different approach to deciding whom it wants. Its J-Find program allows graduates of selected top universities to move to Japan for up to two years while they look for work or prepare to launch a business. They can arrive without a job offer. Selecting talented people is hard. MIT and other leading universities have already done it. They receive applications from exceptional students and decide who gets in. Japan now uses that work as its own filter. Some companies go much further and start building relationships with talented people while they are still in school. Jane Street sponsors math olympiads and runs a free summer academy for high school graduates, complete with a scholarship. In China, this has become a race. Tencent has been bringing high school students in as interns since 2019. Huawei launched its Genius Youth program the same year, hiring on achievement rather than diplomas. ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming helped set up a research center that takes on 30 students aged 16 to 18 every year as full-time trainees in AI, math, and computer science. Carmaker Geely now recruits straight out of high school and guarantees a job at the end of the training. These companies already know where to find the people they need. Governments don’t have to build that knowledge from scratch. They can plug into the networks companies have already built. This can be thought of as a “G2B2C” model: the government works with companies, and companies reach the individuals. ### Bureaucratic Hurdles and the Truth About Relocation Grants Europe has tried paying people to move to places that are losing population, such as Sardinia, which still offers a relocation grant. I don’t think this is a particularly convincing way to compete for Tech talent. Yes, you can pay someone to move. But once they get there, why should they stay? There have been plenty of attempts to build the next Silicon Valley by pumping money into a location. But Silicon Valley, or other well-established hubs like Boston, grew around universities that were already producing exceptional people and companies. The ecosystem came first. A founder looking at a new country makes a practical calculation: “If I move my company there, what becomes easier?” For a hardware founder, being close to suppliers and talent matters. For a software founder, access to customers and investors is key. Governments that understand this and streamline incorporation processes—like the proposed EU Inc—can attract startups. The EU Inc proposal aims to create a unified European corporate structure, making it easier to incorporate and scale across borders. This could be a game-changer for European startup incorporation, reducing bureaucracy and making the EU more competitive globally. But it’s not just about paperwork. It’s about creating an environment where founders feel they can thrive. That means access to talent, capital, and markets. Countries that get this right will win the talent war. Those that don’t will keep offering relocation grants that few take up. So, what can we learn from all this? Governments need to think like product-led companies. They need to understand their users—the talented individuals—and design policies that make it easy for them to say yes. Visas are just one feature. The real product is the entire experience of moving, living, and working in a new country. And as the EU Inc proposal shows, Europe is starting to get it. The question is: will it be enough to compete with the Dubais and Japans of the world? Only time will tell.