The AI Delta Plan is the foundation, now for the building blocks

From the startup scene, the message is loud and clear. We embrace the Delta Plan, but we also see where it falls short. We need an ecosystem that not only nurtures talent but also gives it the opportunity to grow. And it requires more than just a plan.

The holy trinity: knowledge, money, and space

Successful innovation rests on three pillars. The Delta Plan addresses the knowledge with plans for AI literacy and talent development. Fantastic. But talent leaves if there are no challenging jobs. And those jobs are created by scale-ups, which in turn depend on the other two pillars.

The money is the weakest link. The numbers are well-known. Dutch pension funds invest three times as much in American companies as in European ones. [2] Dutch investors now contribute only 15% to the total venture capital in their own country. [1] We have a 'forgotten valley' in the financing chain, the crucial phase between €1 million and €10 million where many scale-ups get stuck. InvestNL is a great instrument, but with tickets from €10 to €30 million, it is the A380 flying over this valley. [4]

The space is the third, often underestimated, pillar. Both physically and regulatory. The current grid crisis is the most painful example. A company in the Brainport region that has to wait until 2033 for a power connection is not hindered by the market, but by a lack of physical and policy space. [3]

The way forward: four concrete building blocks

The Delta Plan is the foundation. Now we must deliver the building blocks. Here are four concrete proposals we continually hear in the field.

1. Make venture capital cheaper and more accessible. The government can play a crucial role by reducing risks for private investors. Expand existing guarantee schemes like the BMKB and the Growth Facility, specifically targeted at the 'forgotten valley' of scale-ups. [5] Let the government more often provide guarantees to banks, so they are more willing to finance. This is not a subsidy; this is risk-sharing.

2. Reward success and encourage reinvestment. Make it fiscally more attractive to invest and reward success. Instead of increasing the tax on 'carried interest' from 33% to 49.5%—a measure that directly harms our competitive position—we should encourage it. [6] Create a fiscal incentive for founders who, after a successful exit, reinvest their money back into the Dutch ecosystem. This creates a flywheel of capital and experience.

3. Put the founders in the spotlight. We need a culture change. We are too modest about our successes. The government and media must present our successful entrepreneurs much more as role models. The stories of the founders of Adyen, Mollie, and MessageBird should become as well-known as those of the CEOs of our multinationals. They are living proof that it is possible and inspire the next generation.

4. Communicate what we are doing well. We have one of the best digital infrastructures in the world, a highly educated population, and an open economy. Let's actively promote that story. A positive and confident business climate attracts international talent and capital.

From foundation to construction

The AI Delta Plan is the perfect start. It acknowledges that we as a country must take the lead. But let's not leave it at a foundation. Let's now provide the building blocks that our entrepreneurs need to build. By sharing risks, rewarding success, and celebrating our heroes. Only then can we build an ecosystem of world players on that foundation.

A closer look at the National AI Delta Plan

On November 23, 2025, the National AI Delta Plan was presented in The Hague. It is a document that reads like an urgent call to action, a blueprint to transform the Netherlands from a passive AI consumer into a strategic European player. Written by more than fifty experts from academia, business, and government, commissioned by acting minister Vincent Karremans (VVD), the plan outlines a roadmap to reduce the Dutch dependency on American and Chinese tech giants. This article analyzes the core points of the plan, the reactions from the ecosystem, the feasibility of the ambitions, and the crucial choices facing the Netherlands.

The urgency of a Delta Plan

The comparison with the Delta Works, which were designed to protect the Netherlands after the 1953 flood disaster, is consciously and strategically chosen. The authors of the AI Delta Plan see a similar existential threat, not from water, but from data and algorithms. "The Netherlands is hardly participating in the development of AI. We are heavily dependent on American and Chinese AI companies," states the alarming opening of the plan. [7] This dependency, the experts argue, not only threatens Dutch earning capacity but also the control over systems that shape society and democracy.

The plan describes a "historic choice moment." The choice is between accepting a role as a digital colony or investing in sovereignty, prosperity, and resilience. "Doing nothing means choosing dependency; strategic investment means working on our autonomy," according to the summary. [7]

This urgency does not come out of thin air. It is the result of growing discomfort in the Dutch tech community. Jelle Prins, co-initiator and founder of AI company Cradle, expresses this sentiment aptly. "If we do nothing, our earning and competitive power will decline, and we will become too dependent on Chinese and American companies that make AI models. They determine the access and the price. This makes us very vulnerable." [11]

The creation of the plan

The seed for the Delta Plan was sown in early 2025 with an opinion piece in NRC by Jelle Prins and Michiel Bakker, a Dutch AI professor at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This piece, in which they expressed their concerns about the future of the Netherlands in the AI era, received much support. "The opinion piece gained a lot of traction. Many organizations and institutions were also concerned," writes Prins on LinkedIn. [8]

The ball started rolling when acting Minister of Economic Affairs, Vincent Karremans, acknowledged the urgency. He invited Prins and Bakker to take the lead in writing a broadly supported plan. What followed was an intensive process of several months, involving more than sixty experts from all corners of society. From scientists and entrepreneurs to representatives from the media, education, and the energy sector. "Ultimately, about sixty companies and experts were involved, from people in education and science to the energy and infrastructure sector, from ASML to startups," says Prins. [11]

The result is a document that not only presents a technical vision but also a societal one. It is an attempt to formulate a national, broadly supported response to one of the greatest challenges of this time.

The five pillars in detail

The Delta Plan is built around five pillars, with a total of 52 concrete recommendations. These pillars together form an integral strategy that addresses both the technological foundations and the societal embedding of AI.

Pillar 1. Infrastructure The most concrete and perhaps most urgent recommendation is the need to invest in our computing power. The figures are sobering. The Netherlands' fastest supercomputer, Snellius, has 640 advanced GPUs. Soon, the new AI Factory in Groningen will add 2,500 GPUs. By comparison, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is estimated to own more than a million of these chips. [9] The plan therefore advocates speeding up the permitting process for data centers through special "AI computing zones" and solving bottlenecks in the overloaded power grid.

Pillar 2. AI adoption and literacy Technology alone is not enough. The plan emphasizes that the Netherlands is lagging in AI adoption, driven by skepticism and a lack of knowledge. Therefore, a large-scale educational offensive is proposed, targeting teachers, civil servants, politicians, and employees in the business community. The goal is to create a basic level of AI literacy throughout society.

Pillar 3. A competitive AI ecosystem The Netherlands trains a lot of top talent but loses a significant part to abroad. The Delta Plan aims to reverse this by improving the business climate. One of the most controversial proposals is to relax dismissal rules for jobs with very high salaries. This should make it less risky for startups to attract expensive international talent. [8] There is also a plea for "special economic zones" where experiments can be conducted with, for example, self-driving cars and delivery robots.

Pillar 4. Democratic embedding To ensure AI serves society, and not the other way around, the plan proposes establishing a National AI Impact Institute. This independent body should monitor the societal effects of AI and advise parliament. Additionally, citizen assemblies are proposed to give citizens a voice in AI policy.

Pillar 5. Flagships The most ambitious proposals are the "flagships." The creation of a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI), inspired by the American DARPA, should finance technological breakthroughs. A Dutch ELLIS Institute should attract top researchers. And a State Secretary for AI should ensure political clout and coordination.

Reactions from the ecosystem

The reception of the Delta Plan is a mix of enthusiasm and caution. Minister Karremans responded positively and called the plan "very good, concrete points that the government can work on" in NRC. He showed support for a State Secretary for AI. [9]

Support is also heard from the tech community. Erick Webbe of KickstartAI calls the plan "essential if the Netherlands wants to become a leader in AI." [10] Constantijn van Oranje, special envoy of Techleap, warns that the pace of AI development is faster than the Netherlands can keep up with but also sees opportunities. [10]

However, there are also critical voices. AI expert Aaron Mirck is positive about the initiative but makes some remarks. "With the development of GPT-NL, there is indeed work towards autonomy, but this AI language model for the Netherlands is not mentioned at all. I find that odd," he tells Businesswise. [11] Mirck also warns of a too technocratic view. "Sometimes the document reads as if it is mainly written by technicians. Less bureaucracy can be more meaningful than applying AI." [11]

The most fundamental criticism concerns the feasibility. "You can have plans to build data centers and other AI infrastructure, but if you are not allowed to build, plans remain just plans," says Mirck, referring to the nitrogen crisis and the congested power grid. [11]

The future vision for 2035

The Delta Plan paints a hopeful perspective for 2035. A future where AI systems can detect cancer early, robots solve staff shortages in healthcare, and sustainable agriculture is made possible by autonomous machines. On the roads, self-driving cars could reduce the number of fatal accidents by ninety percent. [7]

This vision is optimistic, but according to the authors, not unrealistic. It serves as a point on the horizon, a vision of the societal and economic benefits that can be achieved if the Netherlands makes the right choices now. It is an attempt to elevate the debate on AI above the fear of job loss and disinformation, and focus on the enormous potential for progress.

Critical analysis and feasibility

The ambitions of the Delta Plan are great, but so are the challenges. The main question is the financial and political feasibility. Although the plan itself does not mention a concrete price tag, the AI Coalition 4 NL, an alliance of the largest AI organizations in the Netherlands, presented its own investment agenda of 5 billion euros a few days after the Delta Plan. [12] It is unclear whether politics is willing to allocate such amounts, especially given the fact that AI played hardly any role in the recent election campaign.

A comparison with neighboring countries underscores the urgency.

The Netherlands will therefore have to invest heavily to catch up. However, the biggest hurdle is not financial, but the capacity to implement. The problems surrounding the power grid and the nitrogen crisis expose a deeper problem: a country stuck in procedures and political deadlocks. The success of the Delta Plan depends on the government's ability to remove these obstacles.

Conclusion and outlook

The National AI Delta Plan is an impressive and necessary attempt to wake up the Netherlands. It highlights the sore spot: the growing technological dependence and the lack of a coherent national strategy. The strength of the plan is that it not only focuses on technology but on the entire ecosystem, from education and regulation to societal embedding.

The coming months are crucial. It is now up to politicians to take up the challenge and translate the recommendations into concrete policy. The initiators have done their work. The ball is now in the new cabinet's court. The stakes are high. It is not just about economic prosperity, but about whether the Netherlands wants to remain a sovereign nation in the 21st century.

Authors
Willem Blom & Max Pinas Founders Dutchstartup.ai