11 May 2026: Europe's quantum moment; EU holds AI model talks with OpenAI and Anthropic; Simplified AI rules; and more

Welcome back to the bi-weekly “Inside European Deep Tech” newsletter, compiled by Robin Wauters, COO and board member of the European Startup Network, co-driver at EU–INC, investor at Syndicate One and formerly founding editor and CEO of Tech.eu.

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

Below, please find a tightly curated list of links for anyone with a vested interest in the European deep tech space:

Must-reads

• EU Commission in talks with OpenAI and Anthropic over AI models

• EU accused of wasting €20B on AI computing dreams

• How a Spanish startup pivoted to video AI and built a $230 million ARR business with no VC funding

• EU agrees to simplify AI rules

• The EU and UK have agreed to commence negotiations on UK participation in the European Innovation Council Fund, including the Scaleup Europe Fund

• Why venture capital is shifting from software to deep tech

• One Europe, One Market – Europe’s strongest response to a world in transformation

• Nuclear fusion: Europe’s next deep tech frontier

• EU merger shake-up exposes von der Leyen–Ribera clash of visions

• EU countries, lawmakers fail to reach deal on watered-down AI rules

• Sources: the EU is drafting a revised Chips Act II, set for late May, that would grant it power to invest directly in large, cross-border manufacturing projects

• Anthropic in Talks to Buy AI Chips From U.K. Startup

• Council blinks on cutting EU AI rules for machinery

• EU's tech sovereignty plan risks trade deal, warns US ambassador

>> A word from our partner Deep Tech Momentum (DTM):

Deep Tech Momentum (DTM) is on a mission to strengthen European competitiveness, resilience and technological sovereignty by building the #1 marketplace for deep tech and AI on the continent.

DTM 2026 will bring together 3,000+ Europe's boldest senior innovation leaders, top startup and scale-up founders, and leading investors across energy, defence, manufacturing and robotics, advanced materials, high-performance computing, and space – with a shared goal to accelerate the adoption of commercially-ready, next-horizon technologies.

The program includes an AI Productivity Summit, Venture Clienting & CVC Summit, CXO Sovereignty Summit, LP-GP Marketplace as well as high-level industry and public sector speakers.

DTM also features a unique format of highly-curated 1:1 meetings to accelerate deep tech Go-to-Market where attendees engage directly with Europe’s leading network of 300+ corporate innovation leaders with budgets to deploy deep tech solutions at scale.

To learn more, visit www.deeptech.build

Insights: data, research, interviews and profiles

• Germany, Netherlands and Italy gain AI researchers, France loses out

• DeepMind alumni start dozens of European startups in last 18 months, new data shows

• Europe's Physical AI playbook with Dr.-Ing. Máté Péntek (TUM)

• Anthropic vs European AI

• Europe’s $17bn tech quarter: AI, deep tech win as fintech slides

• Garching, Lausanne, Eindhoven: Meet the ‘tier two’ hubs on the rise in Europe

• The first EIC STEP Scale-Up results of 2026

• A Brussels moat: Can European regulation work for founders?

• European dynamism (Sifted report)

• Britain is catching onto the dangers of tech chokepoints

• These European startups are using AI to discover new materials

• From proof of concept to real adoption: What corporate leaders say about scaling deep tech partnerships in Europe

• The 'Rise Europe' Startup-Corporate Collaboration Playbook

• INTERVIEW: Rules purge to focus on digital governance, says Virkkunen

• ‘Lovable mafia’: Meet the founders emerging from Europe’s hottest AI startup

• Beyond Lovable and Mistral: 21 European startups to watch

• 11 future of compute startups to watch, according to VCs

• European startups set to survive AI disruption, according to VCs

• Cleantech Q1 Briefing 2026

• How to build a European incubator in 2026

• Private Equity at Work 2026: National factsheets

• Ukrainian Accelerator Research

• Defence tech mapped — 72 startups to watch in Europe

• Europe’s second chance: The rise of a new battery ecosystem

• Blended Capital And The Future Of Deep Tech Investing

• Wealth taxation, including net wealth, capital and exit taxes

• The hottest cities for robotics deals in Europe

• SPACs and megarounds: What's going on in European quantum?

• Innovation across borders: Building bridges between Georgia, Europe, and the US

Opinions worth reading

• There's never been a more important time for European science startups — but they keep reaching for the wrong type of capital

• Germany's most active early-stage investor thinks Europe is on the edge of its next economic miracle. Here's the plan

• Europe’s Tech Creators' Wake-Up Call: Let's act as One Europe, Now

• Berlin tech’s new reality: AI-driven output, stagnant wages, and a workforce on the move

• Europe Doesn’t Have a Capital Problem. It Has a Competitiveness Problem

• Don't Fight Stagnation. Hustle Culture Is Not a Path to High Performance

• European deeptech needs much more than it has — so let’s make sure we include women

• FP10 must recognise regions or risk missing EU’s full innovation potential

• AI Is Rewriting What Investors Should Look For In Early Startup Teams

Major European deep tech startup and scale-up news

• Drone start-up Helsing set for $18bn valuation as investors pile into defence

• Google’s Isomorphic Labs to Raise Over $2 Billion in New Funding

• SAP Acquires AI Startup Prior Labs, Plans to Invest More Than €1 Billion

• Quantum Motion raises $160M for silicon-based quantum computers that fit in a server rack

• QuantWare secures €152M for large-scale quantum systems

• Belgium's Kpler launches minority stake sale valuing firm at up to $5 billion

• Amadeus to buy French biometrics firm Idemia Public Security for $1.4 billion

• ElevenLabs adds BlackRock, Nvidia and Jamie Foxx to $550M+ Series D

• Specialist chipmaker Silex raised ~$220M in its Stockholm IPO, trading up as high as 159%, the strongest open for a sizable European IPO in almost five years

• Cologne-based AI translation startup DeepL plans to cut ~25% of its workforce, or ~250 staff, saying adapting to AI “means fewer layers” and “faster decisions”

• Nebius buys US AI inference startup Eigen AI in $643M deal

• Nyobolt Raises $60M in Series C Funding, at $1B Valuation

• German deeptech eleQtron lands €57M Series A funding

• CMBlu Energy: €50 Million Series C Initial Close Pushes Company Past €1 Billion Unicorn Valuation

• €47 million hybrid funding round for travel tech firm Smartness

• Peter Sarlin's QuTwo reaches $380M valuation in angel round

• Quantum Machines acquires QHarbor and opens Delft office to deepen European quantum footprint

• SWEBAL raises €30M to build Sweden’s first TNT facility and strengthen NATO ammunition supply

• SPREAD AI raises $30M Series B for industrial AI

• All3 raises $25M to boost construction productivity with robotics and AI

• Paris-based Lithosquare raises €22 million to accelerate transition-critical mineral discovery with Geology AI

• Algorithmiq moves global HQ to Milan and raises €18M in Italy’s largest quantum VC round

• Pit launches with $16M, led by Andreessen Horowitz, to power AI-native enterprise operations

• Pirelli Acquires Univrses Stake to Enhance Cyber Tyre

Major European deep tech investor news

• Earlybird closes €360M Fund VIII, doubling down on deeptech and long-term ownership

• Bosch commits €200m to deep tech venture building push

• KOMPAS VC closes €160M Fund II for industrial tech startups

• SPRIND launches €125M Next Frontier AI challenge to back new AI paradigms in Europe

• Ground State Ventures closes $88M fund to back early-stage quantum startups

• LG opens London base to expand European deep tech investing

• HighTechXL launches €11M fund to back deep tech from day one

In other links

• EU governments hatch plan to secure key role in next Horizon Europe

• No need to update Big Tech rules for AI, says Commission

• Mistral, Europe’s answer to OpenAI and Anthropic, pushes its coding agents to the cloud

• 8 deep-tech firms advance under €146m EIC STEP Scale Up call

• After OpenAI and Anthropic, Jeff Bezos’s AI lab 'goes to' London

• UK to develop AI hardware plan

• MEPs propose ‘well-rounded’ defence R&D instruments

• IoT Tribe launches first European operations in Dublin

• Three Swiss deep tech startups secure Eureka funding

• UK ‘invention agency’ grants £50m of public money to US tech and venture capital firms

• How Europe is falling behind in the global crypto race, as delays to the ECB's digital euro leave the bloc exposed to US-led stablecoin dominance

• Irish firm helps Europe use lasers in space to communicate

• Europe’s first drone procurement hub targets faster defence deployment

• UK backs two new focused research organisations

• Make more use of Horizon Europe funding, Zaharieva tells university alliances

• Infineon Sales Forecast Beats as AI Boosts Power Chip Business

• imec.istart, the world's #1 university-linked accelerator program has landed in Germany

• Nscale Plans Expansion of Microsoft Data Center Site in Portugal

• Google DeepMind workers in UK vote to unionize amid deal with US military

• Thought experiment: quantum computers & replicating our reality

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• The Quest to Use AI to Help Find New Drugs

• The Venture-Capital Populist

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