The market defines behind "ahead/behind" by market value. None of the top 5 market caps in Europe are in tech. They are Nestle, Roche, Total SA, Novartis, and LVMH. They are tiny in comparison to the US tech giants.

All the anecdotal evidence you provide is nice, but is not represented in the market.

An example you give, Nordic Semiconductor, has a market cap of $3B.

Here's a good list of the worlds largest tech companies. The first European entry is #14, ASML:

https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-b...