Investments from the USA and Asia are flowing into Poland. However, the country still has to overcome major hurdles to become a leading technology country.

Intel is investing $4.6 billion in a Polish chip factory. Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are expanding. They follow Asian semiconductor companies such as USI from Taiwan, LG Electronics from Korea, Heesung and Pilkington from Japan, which have already invested.

Poland is emerging as Europe’s hot new tech hub. The new center-right coalition is courting foreign investors, touting the country’s low costs, skilled workforce, and pro-US and Taiwanese policies. But Warsaw has yet to prove it can offer regulatory stability, strong cybersecurity, and top-notch engineering talent.

Progress is visible. Not so long ago, Poland was a technological hinterland in the truest sense of the word. Investors came to the country to run their back offices and focus on bureaucratic paperwork. Today, the country is moving up the value chain into semiconductors, cloud computing and other cutting-edge services.

A good example is Google. When the company came to Poland 19 years ago, its first office consisted of a single room and could accommodate no more than three people. The search engine company’s first investment was in Wroclaw, where it focused on accounting and advertising sales.

In 2022, Google spent $700 million to buy two skyscrapers in Warsaw, the largest office transaction in the history of Poland and the entire Central European region. Google Poland now employs more than 1,500 people, including numerous engineers. The Warsaw office is Europe’s largest development center for Google Cloud technology and serves global customers.

Poland now hopes to become a European cloud hub. Amazon Web Services is also expanding its presence. According to McKinsey, widespread use of cloud services could increase Poland’s annual GDP by 4% by 2030.

Semiconductors are the other central pillar in Poland’s technology strategy. The country hopes to benefit from the European Union’s just-passed CHIPS law. Vigo Photonics, a Polish company specializing in infrared detectors and modules, is in the process of finalizing EU funding of around €100 million for a new factory. NVIDIA, known for producing GPUs and AI hardware, is in talks to build quantum computing centers. This could be a crucial step in securing Poland’s position in the ever-accelerating race for this advanced computing power.

Some Polish companies are also flourishing. The domestic company Allegro is the largest e-commerce platform in the country, far ahead of Amazon. In Poland, the company has 14.3 million customers. The online marketplace recently expanded to the Czech Republic, where it already has 600,000 users.

The key lies in politics. While France, Germany and Italy have long been skeptical of Silicon Valley’s enormous economic and cultural influence, Poland has remained pro-American and open-minded under the previous right-wing nationalist government and the new center-left coalition. Unlike France, Poland has not introduced a special digital tax and has resisted all attempts to impose sovereignty requirements on cloud providers. Unlike Germany, Poland has not restricted product launches on privacy grounds.

The current government has brought the company back into the EU’s good graces, taking over the rotating six-month EU presidency and the D9+ group in the first half of 2025. Importantly for technology investors, Warsaw is in favor of a legislative pause to focus instead on implementing the latest technology regulations. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski recently visited Silicon Valley and met with Meta, Intel, Palo Alto Networks and Nvidia.

Another target is semiconductor superstar Taiwan. In May 2022, a Polish trade delegation visited the island and a Taiwan-Polish working group on semiconductors was established. Taiwan-based chipmaker MediaTek has set up a research and development facility in Warsaw and Polish officials say Taiwan Semiconductor is recruiting Polish engineering talent.

Despite these visible successes, Poland faces significant challenges in its goal of becoming a technology leader. The established technology hubs of France and Germany continue to attract significant foreign investment. Both countries benefit from large domestic markets, advanced infrastructure and strong influence within the European Union.

Poland has made great progress in education and has a highly skilled technical workforce. In Poland, the educational attainment of 25-34 year-olds increased significantly between 2000 and 2021, by 26 percentage points, which is 5% above the OECD average.

However, Poland needs to improve its human capital. While the country has a well-educated workforce with strong technical skills, it lacks experienced professionals who can drive high-level innovation. Foreign engineers need to be recruited. Many of Google Cloud specialists in Warsaw come from abroad. Poland’s R&D spending remains relatively low at 1.4 percent of GDP compared to the EU average of 2.3 percent, limiting the domestic development of advanced industries.

Warsaw also needs to be convinced that it offers regulatory stability. Although technology investors such as Google have always been welcome, a 2021 media law deterred foreign investors. It almost forced the sale of Poland’s largest private broadcaster, owned by the American Discovery Channel.

Another problem is cybersecurity. Over the past two years, the number of cyberattacks in the country has increased by 400 percent. Polish companies are now victims of up to 1,000 attacks a week, 85 percent of which are linked to Russia. The government is aware of the need to strengthen its cyber defenses and intensify its cyber diplomacy.

Poland has a huge opportunity. While much of Europe is hostile to Silicon Valley, it is extending a welcoming hand. Provided the country can attract top-notch engineers, deal with the Russian cybersecurity threat, and continue its pro-American, pro-European diplomatic course, it is poised to become a tech hub.

Maciej Filip Bukowski is a non-resident fellow at CEPA’s Digital Innovation Initiative, a 2022 CEPA James S. Denton Fellow, and an Earth System Governance Project Research Fellow. A graduate of the Sorbonne and Cornell law schools, he is currently writing his PhD thesis on the geopolitics of climate change at the Jagiellonian University.

Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to promoting transatlantic cooperation on technology policy. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of the institutions he represents or of the Center for European Policy Analysis.