The state of open source in Europe
Open source is at a crossroads. For the past few years, venture capital has directly or indirectly paid for many of the contributors and much of the infrastructure it needed…
Space tourism balloon startup unveils ‘luxury’ capsule design
A space tourism company promising stratospheric balloon rides has unveiled the vehicle’s capsule design. Halo Space is building the balloon for zero-emission commercial flights to altitudes of up to 40km.…
‘British DARPA’ to build AI gatekeepers for ‘quantitative safety guarantees’
A British R&D unit today unveiled a futuristic vision of “quantitative safety guarantees” for AI. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) compares the guarantees to the high safety standards…
Green transition at the centre of EU-China tech rivalry
With the geopolitical landscape turning more unstable by the day, EU relations with China are also becoming increasingly turbulent. At the core of the rising tensions lies the quest for…
Max Planck spinout nets €20M to build ‘stellarator’ fusion machine
A German startup has secured new funding for a peculiar twisted-looking reactor that could prove a quicker path to clean, virtually limitless fusion energy. Proxima Fusion has raised €20mn as…
Meta’s AI chief: LLMs will never reach human-level intelligence
There’s no escaping the hype around artificial general intelligence. Barely a day passes without a new headline about the concept, which envisions computer systems outperforming humans at various cognitive tasks.…
TNW Podcast: Jean-David Malo on EU money for startups; quantum without noise
Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of…
Italy sets up €1B AI fund, mulls new penalties for the tech’s misuse
Backed by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Italy is committing €1bn to AI development over the course of the next five years. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni first announced…
Autonomous vertical farming startup to grow crops in space in 2026
A vertical farming startup from the UK is taking its technology to new heights. The UK Space Agency has awarded Vertical Future £1.5mn to build an autonomous farm in orbit.…
Ukraine launches defence tech accelerator amid sector-wide boom
Ukraine has launched a defence tech accelerator programme for new startups aiming to deliver innovative solutions for military applications. The Defence Builder Accelerator is a four-month-long training programme, which will…
Finnish startup to launch ‘software-defined’ satellite with ESA
Helsinki-based startup ReOrbit is preparing for the first demonstration of its “software-enabled” satellite. This marks the next phase of the ESA’s UKKO programme, which works with ReOrbit to develop and…
Finnish startup Basemark secures €22M to make driving safer with AR
Helsinki-headquartered Basemark has raised €22mn to bring its augmented reality (AR) “toolkit” to automakers across the globe. Basemark’s software, dubbed Rocksolid AR, is an AI-based computer vision system that enables…