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As we move into the second half of 2025, the global tech ecosystem is navigating a heady mix of unpredictability and promise. Funding into newer tech firms remains complex, with Startup Genome reporting that while the Beijing, Los Angeles and Tokyo startup landscapes are seeing YoY growth, Paris is flat and the rest of the European ecosystem is in decline. Meanwhile, the technology landscape...
Funding focus is a new series analysing cash flow into the European tech ecosystem. Last week, we looked at the largest investment rounds in fusion energy this year, and now we’re honing in on Europe’s booming defence tech arena. Europe’s defence tech startups secured $971mn in funding in the first half of this year, as VCs look to capitalise on the continent’s push to rearm amid heightened...
The UK has just launched its most advanced supercomputer — the 11th most powerful in the world. Isambard-AI, hosted at the University of Bristol, officially went live this week. The machine was built by Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (HPE) using its Cray EX architecture and fitted with over 5400 NVIDIA Grace Hopper superchips. Its raw computing power is measured at 216.5 petaflops, with a peak...
Denmark is aiming to stake a bold claim in the global quantum race with plans to build the world’s most powerful quantum computer. Backed by €80mn from EIFO (Denmark’s export and investment fund) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the new initiative — dubbed QuNorth — aims to deploy the Nordic region’s first “Level 2” quantum system. Microsoft and California-based Atom Computing will deliver the...
Norwegian industrial investment firm Aker has announced plans to build an AI “factory” in the Arctic. It’s the latest company heading to the far north to tap into abundant green energy and natural cooling for power-hungry data centres. The facility will be located in the Norwegian coastal town of Narvik, which lies 220km within the Arctic Circle. Aker’s president and CEO, Øyvind Eriksen said...
A bankrupt company’s propulsion system for hypersonic planes is being revived by Invictus, a new European Space Agency (ESA)-backed project aiming to build and fly a hydrogen-powered spaceplane by 2031. The proposed engine for the plane is based on so-called pre-cooler technology, developed over decades by UK aerospace firm Reaction Engines, which went bust in November. Many of Reaction Engines...
Dutch file-sharing service WeTransfer is under fire after users spotted sweeping updates to its terms of service that appeared to let the company train AI models on their uploaded files. The company has now removed the controversial language, but users remain outraged. Here’s what’s going on — and why it matters. What did WeTransfer change? WeTransfer users discovered this week that the service...
A giant cargo ship is set to trap carbon from its exhaust and turn it into cement for use in onshore construction. The technology, developed by UK startup Seabound, is billed as the world’s first commercial carbon capture system for boats. It will be installed on the UBC Cork, a cement carrier owned by Germany’s Hartmann Group. “These are the systems we intend to scale across hundreds, and...
“There is no stop the clock. There is no grace period. There is no pause.” So said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, in response to calls for a pause on the EU’s AI Act. These landmark rules on artificial intelligence will, then, be rolled out according to the timeline specified in the legislation. The EC will ignore calls from 46 CEOs across the continent to halt the...
German startup Enerkii has launched an energy-as-a-service model that aims to cut power bills in half for industrial customers — and decarbonise them in the process. The model uses an in-house operating system (OS) to calculate the optimal solar energy configuration for any company in around 15 minutes. Then it provides the hardware stack to set it up — solar panels, battery storage, EV charging...