U.S.-Romania AI & Business Summit

01Two days of private 1:1s

The Summit

U.S. managing partners and company founders come to Timișoara for two working days of 1:1 meetings with Romanian founders, funds, companies and universities. A 150-seat summit follows on Thursday.

Every delegate comes in person, holding the authority to assess an investment, commission work or form a partnership.

02Facts

At a Glance

When: September 22–25, 2026
Where: Timișoara, Romania
U.S. delegation: Fifteen seats, by invitation
Core format: Two days of pre-matched 1:1 meetings
Public summit: 150 curated seats, Thursday, September 24
Language: English

03Value

What Each Side Gets

Romanian funds and companies

Meet U.S. fund partners, founders and operating executives whose interests were reviewed before they travel. The delegation includes funds looking for local co-investors, and for portfolio companies that have outgrown what a Romanian round can carry.

Each delegate brings a network the room does not contain: operators and co-investors across the Bay Area.

Romanian startup founders

Selected founders are profiled in the packet delegates read before they land. The first meeting starts with someone who has already read about you.

You are matched only with investors whose thesis fits what you are building, and you meet them 1:1.

For most founders, this is where a U.S. network starts.

U.S. delegates

Venture capital in Romania is close to a hundred times what it was a decade ago, according to the World Bank. The companies worth backing today were built before that money arrived. The ones being started now are the first to have it.

Across the table are Romanian founders, funds, enterprise decision-makers, the regional agency that funds expansion and research, and the technical university whose graduates work at UiPath, Intel, AMD and Google.

We sit together for three days. What begins here compounds for years.

04Two private days, one public

Agenda

Tue Sep 22 Arrival
The delegation arrives. A small dinner that evening, so people meet before the working days begin.
Wed Sep 23 Private delegation day
A full day of 1:1 meetings and focused roundtables, covering investment pipelines, U.S. market entry, growth financing, commercial partnerships, research and development, and university collaboration. Closes with a private dinner.
Thu Sep 24 Meetings and the public summit
Matching continues alongside the public summit. Keynotes and panels place the private discussions in a wider economic context, and selected Romanian startups present to investors whose mandates fit their stage and sector.
Fri Sep 25 Farewell brunch
Optional follow-up meetings and departures.

Private meetings are matched and confirmed in advance.

05Fifteen seats

The Delegation

A delegation of managing partners and company founders, from the Bay Area, New York and across the United States.

Each delegate was invited on the strength of a stated interest in Romania, a concrete contribution and a clear objective for the week. They arrive with a brief of their own. Among them:

Venture funds from early stage through growth, some backed by global technology corporations and development banks.
Investors who already look at Central and Eastern Europe.
Partners who have built and run venture programs in the United States.
Founders of AI companies looking for engineering partners, a research and development site, or a university to build with.

Their mandates span early-stage venture, growth software investment, enterprise AI, financial infrastructure, AI chips, sovereign data infrastructure, aerospace and dual-use technology, with check sizes from $500,000 to $15 million.

06Selection

The Romanian Side

The Romanian side is selected on the same standard as the delegation, from Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Oradea and the wider region. Every meeting has a clear reason to happen and a credible next step if both sides want to continue.

The funds in the room are the ones deploying now and able to write into the same round as a U.S. investor. The startups are the ones with a live path into the United States, or technology that has already drawn American interest unprompted. The rest of the room is people whose work already has peers outside Romania.

Delegates leave with a short list of Romanian counterparts they intend to keep working with. This is where that list gets made.

07September 24

The Public Summit

The private days are for the delegation. The summit day is for the wider business community and AmCham members.

On September 24 the summit brings together the wider Romanian business community and AmCham’s membership: founders, engineers, investors, university and public-sector leaders. Keynotes and panels put the private conversations in context, and selected Romanian startups present to the visiting investors.

150 seats, so everyone in the room is worth meeting. Registration opens later in 2026.

08Context

Why Romania

Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004, the European Union since 2007 and the Schengen area since 2025. Romanian students place consistently among the leading national teams at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Google runs its largest wearables development center in EMEA here, shipping features to Pixel users worldwide. Adobe runs its largest EMEA research center in Bucharest. AMD designs in Iași, Intel in Timișoara. The case for Romania rests on that engineering base and the growth of local capital.

Timișoara

Timișoara is the city from which Romania turned west in 1989, and European Capital of Culture in 2023. Around 250,000 people live in the city and more than 400,000 in the metropolitan area. Politehnica Timișoara anchors the country’s third largest technology workforce: Intel runs its Romanian AI silicon work here, Nokia develops Open RAN, and Continental builds driver-assistance systems. The city is compact, which keeps formal meetings and unhurried conversation in the same few streets.

The relationships between U.S. capital and Romanian technology are still being formed. Capital moves in a quarter. Knowing a company well enough to answer the phone takes years.

09Organizers

Who Convenes It

Partner

The convening partner for U.S.-Romania business since 1993, with more than 570 member companies including major Fortune 500 companies operating in Romania.

Partner

The regional development agency for West Romania, operator of the Vest Ventures and Asternova investment funds.

Partner

The technical university behind the region’s engineering and research base.

Ionuț Alexandru Antiu

Organizer

Technology entrepreneur and fractional CTO for U.S. enterprises and startups for over ten years, including Western Digital, SanDisk, Upthere and Bluescape. Based in Timișoara.

10Three routes

Participate

U.S. investors and technology founders

Delegation places are by invitation. A conversation begins with your interests, the relevant Romanian counterparts, and what you want out of the visit.

Coming soon

Romanian funds, companies and universities

Submit your investment mandate, partnership objective, financing need or research interest for the matching process.

Coming soon

The public summit, September 24

150 seats. Registration opens later in 2026.

Coming soon

Until these open, write to [email protected].

11Media

Press

Press contact

Andreea Roman, Communication Manager

American Chamber of Commerce in Romania

[email protected]

Summit press office

[email protected]

For background, interviews and media accreditation. The summit takes place from September 22 to 25, 2026 in Timișoara.

About the U.S.-Romania AI & Business Summit

The U.S.-Romania AI & Business Summit is an invitation-only delegation and public summit organized by Ionuț Alexandru Antiu in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania, ADR Vest and Politehnica Timișoara. It runs September 22 to 25, 2026 in Timișoara. A fifteen-seat delegation of U.S. investors and technology founders meets Romanian founders, funds, companies, universities and public institutions across two days of pre-matched 1:1 meetings, followed by a public summit for 150 attendees.