In September 2026, The Stack—a new 4,500-square-meter AI hub—will open in Amsterdam’s Oostenburg neighborhood. The initiative brings European AI developers under one roof and aims to bridge the gap between Europe’s AI potential and the actual production of foundation models. The U.S. has produced 40 such models; Europe, only 3.
These figures symbolize a broader European lag. The Stack, located on Jacob Bontiusplaats in Oostenburg, aims to change that by bringing founders, investors, and operators together in a single location. Among the first confirmed tenants are Ubicloud, Dawnguard, and Iconic Works.
Amsterdam is already one of Europe’s largest AI ecosystems. The Stack aims to further connect this existing talent pool with capital, customers, and like-minded founders.
Networking at the Heart of the Concept
The Stack was founded on the belief that physical proximity provides a competitive advantage for AI builders. The infrastructure includes workspaces, labs, and programs, but the emphasis is on the community that forms around it. At the heart of the building is an event space for hackathons, investor days, and product demos.
Through Techleap, connections have been established with universities and research institutions in the Netherlands and beyond. The Stack positions itself as a hub within a broader European network of AI hubs, with the goal of strengthening the Eindhoven–Amsterdam axis as an innovation corridor.
Partners, Funding, and Growth Plans
The initiative was co-founded by Lennard Zwart (Ascending AI), Maarten Stolk (Deeploy, Enjins), and Philip Gast (AdamI, The AI Foundry), together with Techleap. Funding consists largely of more than ten million euros in private capital. Quantitative trading firm IMC has joined as a founding partner. ABN AMRO, ClickHouse, Deloitte, Google, Miro, and Prosus are corporate partners. The city of Amsterdam supports the initiative.
The founding director is Esther Bisschop, whose previous company, Th3rd, was acquired by Snap Inc. in 2022. “The US and China are not waiting for Europe to catch up, and the window in which European AI companies can still compete on a global stage is narrowing,” Bisschop stated in the announcement. “We are not here to celebrate European AI potential. We are here to make sure it stops being potential and starts being a product.”
By 2029, The Stack aims to expand to 12,000 square meters and house more than 200 founders.