Nearfield Instruments raises a record $380M chip round
Nearfield Instruments raises a record $380M chip round

Nearfield Instruments, a Rotterdam firm that inspects chips at the atomic scale, has raised $380mn at a $1.6bn valuation. It is the largest deep-tech round in Dutch history, and sovereign funds are paying close attention. Everyone knows the headline na…

Germany tells Trump: you cannot get to the moon without us
Germany tells Trump: you cannot get to the moon without us

Germany’s space minister has a message for Washington: the dependence runs both ways. In an interview with Politico at the VivaTech trade show in Paris this week, Dorothee Bär said Europe provides “critical key technologies” for American space missions…

Ireland takes the EU presidency with Big Tech paying 40 per cent of its tax bill
Ireland takes the EU presidency with Big Tech paying 40 per cent of its tax bill

Ireland takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 July, inheriting a legislative agenda that includes proposals to curb Europe’s reliance on American tech, simplify the bloc’s digital rulebook, decide whether to ban children from…

France just put another €13bn into the funding model the rest of Europe wants to copy
France just put another €13bn into the funding model the rest of Europe wants to copy

France has found another €13bn for its tech sector. And it barely cost the state a thing. The money comes through Tibi, a programme that nudges French insurers and pension funds to back venture and growth funds instead of safer, lower-yield assets. The…

Warren raises €10M to fix Belgium’s broken workplace pensions
Warren raises €10M to fix Belgium’s broken workplace pensions

The typical Belgian works for about 40 years and retires with a workplace pension worth less than a second-hand car. Warren, a Ghent-based fintech, wants to fix that. The company has raised €10mn in a seed round led by Motive Ventures, the venture arm …

The AI bubble didn’t pop. It sent the bill
The AI bubble didn’t pop. It sent the bill

Until last week, about 200 organisations could use a preview of Anthropic’s most capable model, Mythos. They got in through a programme called Glasswing, after the system flagged thousands of software vulnerabilities. Then, on the evening of 12 June, t…

Retailers want AI-generated ads exempt from EU transparency rules
Retailers want AI-generated ads exempt from EU transparency rules

Europe’s retailers would like the law to make an exception for them. AI-generated advertising should be carved out of the European Union’s incoming transparency rules, a retail association has argued, according to Reuters, taking aim at provisions that…

Leaked licences show Bulgaria greenlit surveillance exports to governments accused of repression
Leaked licences show Bulgaria greenlit surveillance exports to governments accused of repression

Bulgaria’s export control authority licensed a Sofia-based surveillance firm to sell phone-tracking tools, interception systems, and monitoring infrastructure to intelligence agencies in countries with documented records of suppressing dissent. The lic…

The EU is about to declare AWS and Azure gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act
The EU is about to declare AWS and Azure gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act

The European Commission is set to unveil preliminary findings as early as next week stating that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure appear to meet the requirements to be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, Bloomberg reported. …

While Helsing and Anduril chase billion-dollar valuations, Comand AI raised €32M for the layer above them
While Helsing and Anduril chase billion-dollar valuations, Comand AI raised €32M for the layer above them

The defence-tech land grab has a new front, and it sits above the drones and sensors that get the headlines. Comand AI, a Paris startup building AI software for military command, has raised a €32mn Series A led by Blossom Capital, with a strategic inve…