Because in the US, money has nowhere else to go. Stocks? Wildly overpriced. Real estate? Wildly overpriced. Bonds? Zero returns. Mineral extraction? Risky outlook. Energy sector? Subsidies are likely on the horizon, better to wait. Infrastructure? NIMBYs

That's not the case for the EU. Money gets reasonable returns in energy sector, industry, any investment in Eastern Europe, tourism, PPP infrastructure projects, etc.

Is this a joke? European banks are much much more yield starved than their American counterparts. Your bonds have negative yield and pretty much every type of investment is more profitable in the US than in Europe. That's why big EU banks like Deutsche Bank or Credit Suisse have been severely underperforming, and thats why housing bubbles in Europe are much more severe (Spain, Greece, Portugal, etc)

You are literally describing the opposite of the truth.

> and thats why housing bubbles in Europe are much more severe (Spain, Greece, Portugal, etc)

Nothing, not even the Londongrad bubble, is as excessive as the US housing crisis.

Easier to invest into something if you only have a short car drive to the company you're investing in; additionally everything cross-border involves a lot more effort with coordinating taxes.

In any case at least YC does invest into European companies [1] - the key thing is you have to get far enough to have a meaningful product that VC funds can invest in, and unlike the US we don't have a lot of billionaire former founders who go around throwing a couple thousand dollars left and right for promising ideas they hear in an elevator.

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/library?categories=Europe

Are you saying they'll miss out on a multi billion dollar profit opportunity because "it's not a short drive". Many VC firms have European offices, there's Zoom or a plane flight. Cross border investment is not a new or alien thing so dealing with taxes or regulation isn't something they can't cope with. So money not being available isn't a convincing reason.

> Are you saying they'll miss out on a multi billion dollar profit opportunity because "it's not a short drive".

Not "miss out" per se, rather a "prioritize companies in close proximity". There's a reason why a lot of the former startup turned unicorns are all concentrated around the Silicon Valley.