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Market Research by Catalitium

From Build to Buy: How the LLM Platform Era Is Rewriting Software Economics (Europe)

Europe enterprise LLM market ~$1.09B, 76% of AI now purchased vs built, EU AI Act compliance costs, API pricing tiers, and talent benchmarks. 20+ sources, February 2026.

Published February 2026 24 min read Europe • 20+ sources
Table of Contents
  1. How to Use This Report
  2. Introduction
  3. Visual Dashboard
  4. Section 1 — LLM Market Size
  5. Section 2 — Build vs Buy Flip
  6. Section 3 — Cost Structure
  7. Section 4 — Talent Market
  8. Section 5 — EU AI Act
  9. Section 6 — Outlook 2026–2028
  10. Roles: Growing vs Declining
  11. 5 Myths vs Reality
  12. Recommendations
  13. Methodology & Sources
$1.09B
Europe enterprise LLM revenue 2024 (~24% of global)
76%
Enterprise AI use cases purchased (2025)
83.3%
Projected Europe LLM CAGR to 2030
€29.3k
EU AI Act compliance / high-risk system / year

How to Use This Report

European SaaS CEOs

Section 3 (API vs build) and Section 5 (AI Act) for budget and vendor strategy.

Product & Engineering

Build-to-buy flip and role shifts for team design.

Talent & HR

Section 4 salary benchmarks and recommendations.

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