Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited top technology companies and investment firms in Silicon Valley, California, to discuss artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure investments.
The Greek leader held meetings at the headquarters of electric vehicle maker Tesla, semiconductor designer Nvidia and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as part of an official schedule centered on emerging technologies.
At Tesla headquarters in Palo Alto, California, Mitsotakis toured the company main offices and research laboratories. Tesla operates across electric vehicles, autonomous systems, energy storage solutions and humanoid robotics through its Optimus development project.
Konstantinos Laskaris, Vice President and Director of the Optimus program, guided the Prime Minister through the facility. During the tour, Mitsotakis also met with Greek employees working at the automotive and tech company.
Palo Alto, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, serves as a central hub for technological innovation in Silicon Valley. Tesla, which relocated its corporate engineering headquarters back to Palo Alto in 2023, has expanded its focus from electric passenger vehicles to autonomous driving systems, solar power storage and humanoid robotics.
The Optimus project, also known as Tesla Bot, is an initiative to create a general purpose bipedal robot designed to perform repetitive or dangerous tasks. Konstantinos Laskaris, a Greek mechanical engineer who joined Tesla in 2012, leads motor design and engineering for the company advanced hardware projects.
Tesla Robotics and Nvidia Artificial Intelligence
Earlier in the day, Mitsotakis visited Nvidia headquarters to meet with senior company executives and review developments in artificial intelligence and computing technology.
John Josephakis, Global Vice President for Business Development at Nvidia, hosted the meeting. Discussions centered on potential investments in digital and computing infrastructure in Greece, alongside ways Nvidia uses its ecosystem to support startups, government agencies and major tech firms in deploying AI applications.
Mitsotakis also toured the Nvidia research center, where engineers design advanced semiconductors and high performance computing systems. Nvidia is among the largest technology companies in the world and provides essential chip architecture used to train and run modern artificial intelligence models.
Nvidia, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the dominant global designer of graphics processing units and specialized microchips that power modern artificial intelligence models. High performance microchips, known as semiconductors, form the essential hardware layer needed for complex algorithmic calculations and data center processing.
Global Vice President John Josephakis oversees enterprise business development at Nvidia, coordinating partnerships between the semiconductor giant and external tech ecosystems, enterprise clients and government institutions worldwide.
Sequoia Capital Investment Discussions
The prime minister also met with leading venture capitalists during a visit to Sequoia Capital, one of the most prominent investment firms in the technology sector.
Sequoia Capital partners Konstantine Buhler and Doug Leone hosted the gathering. The meeting brought together top investors, researchers from leading technology companies and research laboratories, as well as founders and executives from cutting edge artificial intelligence startups.
Talks focused on emerging applications of artificial intelligence in key fields including medicine, education, industrial automation and robotics. Participants also evaluated strategies for developing innovative technology ecosystems and fostering startup growth.
Founded in 1972, Sequoia Capital is one of Silicon Valley oldest and most influential venture capital firms. Based in Menlo Park, California, the firm has historically provided early stage backing for major global technology enterprises and manages tens of billions of dollars in global venture assets.
Doug Leone, a longtime managing partner who helped build Sequoia into a global venture powerhouse, works alongside partner Konstantine Buhler, who focuses on early stage investments in software development, machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.
