11 August 2025: OpenAI's European Stargate, more details on the EU's digital budget plans, a primer on Europe's spin-out terms and more

Welcome to the bi-weekly “Inside European Deep Tech” newsletter, compiled by Robin Wauters, founder of boutique communications agency Profoundo, board+team member of the European Startup Network, and formerly founding editor and CEO of Tech.eu.

There are now more than 75,000 subscribers to this newsletter; I invite each and every one of you to provide feedback so I can upgrade it over time. 💪🏻

Periodic reminder that I'm always up for a chat about how to upscale your communication and media strategy, so do hit me up if you want to have a conversation.

Before we get started: please have your say on the future of EU Inc!

During the next few weeks, you can help turn Europe into a place where ambitious founders actually want to stay and build tomorrow’s leading companies.

How? By sharing your opinions and (horror) stories with the European Commission before the 30th of September. And the EU Inc team wants to help you do that as quickly and efficiently as possible with a step-by-step guide to answering their survey!

The EU has a once-in-a-generation chance to implement - at a foundational level - a unified measure that will significantly boost entrepreneurs' ability to establish, develop, and grow their businesses across Europe. EU Inc has already developed a comprehensive legal proposal for a standardised, pan-European, digital-first company structure.

Now, they are advocating for a EU regulation - not a directive - to pave the way for the creation of a single legal entity that operates seamlessly across borders within the Single Market. This avoids the current patchwork of 27 different systems, which hinder efficiency and growth. Because, let’s be honest, who needs 27+ flavours of the same headache?

The questionnaire is lengthy and can be challenging to complete, but it’s a key part of the crucial public consultation - and that’s why the EU Inc team has prepared step-by-step guidance to help you respond effectively. Please share these pointers freely and widely.

Now, let’s get to it for newsletter issue #14!

Must-reads

• OpenAI spearheads one of Europe’s biggest data centers with 100,000 Nvidia chips

• Inside the collapse of Builder.ai: Was it even an AI company?

• "For the past several weeks I’ve been digging into standard spin-out policies of UK and European university tech transfer offices (TTOs). Tl;dr - The system is broken."

• Palantir is well on its way to conquering Europe

• Europe is breaking its reliance on American science

• Draft work programme sets out climate, energy and mobility topics for 2026 and 2027

• What you need to know about how the European Commission wants to spend money on digital

• Europe’s Ethical AI Strategy Outpaces US Giants in Efficiency

Insights: data, research, interviews and profiles

• Best Spinout Terms of Europe Universities

• The EU capitals and companies pitching for billions in AI gigafactory funding

• The European Commission has published the full list of signatories to the EU's generative AI Code of Practice initiative so far

• Deep Tech Hardware Napkin

• Making commercial fusion a reality: An Interview with Proxima Fusion’s Francesco Sciortino

• Sifted is launching an AI & Deeptech Newsletter

• European Women in VC: "Hardware, robotics, and science-backed technologies"

Opinions worth reading

• Europe's Regulatory Trap is Choking Innovation

• GP Bullhound: Europe needs to back its innovative deep tech start-ups

• AI startup PhysicsX founder on the “risk aversion” holding back European defence tech

• Why London's tech ecosystem continues to lead...

• "Europe may need to rethink how it can compete in the AI race following the release of GPT-5"

• Will Apple buy Mistral?

• Why Europe could quietly win the humanoid race

• What will it take for nuclear to meet AI's surging energy demands?

• Estonia’s young defence tech sector punches above its weight

• The missing ingredient to make the UK Europe's unrivalled defence tech leader? Ukrainian founders

• Expert talk: How Dutch AI quietly rewires Europe’s deep tech future

Selected news items

• US video platform and cloud services provider Rumble is considering an offer of about $1.17 billion (1 billion euros) for German AI cloud group Northern Data

• Destinus Group signed a binding agreement to acquire Zurich-based Daedalean, a leader in aviation AI solutions, for CHF 180 million (approximately $225 million)

• Stockholm-based Aira secures €150 million to accelerate its mission to take Europe off gas

• Stealthy Paris-based defence tech Harmattan AI is seeking to raise $200 million in early-stage funding

• London-based startup CuspAI is in talks to raise a $100 million funding round, according to reports

• US battery company Lyten has agreed to buy Swedish gigafactory Northvolt’s remaining assets out of bankruptcy and plans to continue operations at the site

• Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), the VC firm investing in the UK’s highest-potential deep tech and life sciences companies, is committing at least £100 million to invest in spinouts from the University of Cambridge

• Oxford-based Ultromics, a pioneer in AI-driven cardiology diagnostics solutions, has raised $55 million through its Series C funding round

• Smart Infrastructure Ventures, a Leipzig-based venture capital firm, has launched its second fund, SIVentures II, with €30 million in capital

• Project Europe Reveals Six Startups to be Included in the Organisation’s First Cohort

• Classiq, the leader in quantum software development platforms, announced an investment by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with additional participation from CDP Venture Capital, Italy’s largest VC operator

In other links

• Vivian's Deeptech Insider: Why your competitors will outfund you (unless you fix this)

• Can Europe’s AI rules turn worker protections into a competitive edge?

• Where Quantum’s Largest Returns Are Expected

• Ukraine launches AI Factory and national LLM to secure digital sovereignty

• Helsing-backer Plural is eyeing ‘mundane’ defence startups

• German Supercomputing Center Deploys World’s First Photonic AI Processor

• How IntuiCell turned decades of controversial neuroscience into breakthrough AI technology

Upcoming events in Europe for your calendar

• 27-28 August - TechBBQ - Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰

• 4-5 September - Music Frontiers - Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪

• 5-9 September - IFA 2025 - Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪

• 17 September - FDDay - Paris, France 🇫🇷

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• Will data centers crash the economy? +

• Inside the AI race: can data centres ever truly be green?

• The Trillion-Dollar Trap

• Emotional Debt: The Silent Killer of Startups

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