European tech companies will always be behind the US. They are giving €80,000 to developers in firms valued at $2 billion :) Look at the salary scales of OpenAI and other companies. Yo will see the difference.
* How far ahead/behind a company is is entirely a function of developer talent.
* How talented your developers are is entirely a function of their salary.
I strongly believe that neither one of these things is true. We'll see who's right in the coming years.