Webuild Ceo Salini: “Innovation must be converted into an industrial asset as a national priority to avoid ceding research to competitors”

MILAN, April 20, 2026 – “We must bridge the gap between an Italy that excels in research and a system that is too slow to transform it into an industrial asset. Speed is a strategic choice. Although it boasts world-class scientific research, Italy struggles to put this excellence to use. It faces the real risk that this intelligence gets exported and then returns to the country in the form of technology, having been developed abroad based on our own discoveries,” stated Pietro Salini, Chief Executive Officer of Webuild, speaking at the 10th anniversary of Materias, an Early Stage Combined Accelerator for innovative start-ups.

“The challenge is political one, as well as one of scale. Speed is not a mere technical detail but a determining factor for industrial sovereignty. Markets like China, which revolutionised its transport network with 47,000 kilometres of high-speed rail in less than 20 years shows how our ability to bridge that gap depends on our capacity to plan.” According to Salini, “Italy must equip itself with a regulatory framework that enables innovation and creates platforms capable of acting as an immediate bridge between the laboratory and the construction site.”

If you adopt this vision, the construction site ceases to be a place of mere physical labour and becomes a true technology factory. “Webuild now operates as a large-scale tech company, where every project is conceived as an intelligent organism. Thanks to the use of Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence, infrastructures are digitally tested before they are even built. This evolution is visible in the use of green TBMs—mechanised excavation shields that function as mobile production plants, reducing energy and water consumption and transforming excavated soil into a resource. It is also seen in our Roboplants: automated factories that produce precast tunnel segments, such as those supplying the Naples-Bari high-speed rail line or the Palermo–Catania–Messina high-capacity line. They guarantee unprecedented standards of safety and precision.”

Technology, however, remains a tool guided by people. “With approximately 95,000 employees globally and a hiring rate of about 13,000 people per year, the Group is investing in generational renewal through its own training schools. The goal is to offer young talents the opportunity to realise major projects in Italy, ensuring the country has the competitiveness necessary to sustain its welfare. Only a systemic synergy between industry and academia can transform the excellence of Italian research into a lasting engine for growth and a global competitive advantage,” Salini concluded.