[probablynish]

If you're considering not just tech, but the general mindset of being somewhere that builds/produces things that other people use, as opposed to just industries of middlemen who skim off the top, then I'd argue India also has that mindset, maybe a few other SE asian countries too, and furthermore that nowhere is quite as bad as Europe in terms of having the opposite mindset.

[RandomLensman]

Europe makes a lot of things. Not sure why you think the chemical industry or a place making drilling guidance systems is skimming of the top or a middlemen.

It is precisely the mindset of needing to make "stuff" that is keeping Europe back, because then software doesn't count.