23 March 2026: State of AI report; Breaking Down AMI's Record Seed Round; EU Inc falls short of challenge; largest European solo GP fund closed

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. 💪🏻

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

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

Must-reads

• AMI: Breaking Down Europe’s Record Seed Round

• Why Alphabet’s VC arm has doubled down on Europe

• Billion-dollar fund Kembara’s founder: ‘Missing out on the deeptech era is unforgivable’

• Nscale is set to deliver $14bn of compute. Can it meet its deadlines?

• UK To Invest £1 Billion into Quantum Computing Research, Trials

• Europe’s second chance on AI: building an opportunity in factories, labs, and the real economy

• European businesses warn Brussels over push to end reliance on US tech

• Chipmaker Axelera AI hoping to benefit from European businesses wanting to run AI locally

• From Europe's OpenAI Killer to the Infrastructure Layer Everyone Builds On

• SPACs are back and they're coming for deep tech - PitchBook

Insights: data, research, interviews and profiles

• Report: State of AI Europe

• State of the European Unicorns Ecosystem - Mighty Nine

• Dealroom: "✨🎤 30 of the most influential people shaping Europe’s deep tech ecosystem right now ✨"

• These were the most active investors in European AI startups in 2025

• Hélène Huby, CEO of The Exploration Company: ‘Only the crazy people change the world’

• FOV Ventures — European Robotics Market Map 2026

• 100 Startups We're Watching in 2026 - Resilience Media

• 🇫🇷 French Tech Wire: Europe’s Tech Boom Has A Capital Gap

• Europe’s Quiet Unicorns: Insights from EIC Scaling Club + EIC Scaling Club companies double peer funding growth with 66% increase

• How to approach London's deep tech investors: targeting, proof, and process

• Co-Investing with US and European VCs

• The rise of DeepTech in the UK

• 10 CEE Female Leaders Driving the Next Wave of Scaleups

• Bruegel Clean Tech Tracker

• How to Actually Price Deep Tech by Value

• ESIL Annual Event - The Role of Business Angels and Early-Stage Investors in Europe’s Deep Tech Future

• 10 Truths no one tells you about building a Deep Tech team

• Investing for tomorrow: long-term investment, economic scale and the green transition

Opinions worth reading

• AI model giants should pay a levy to operate in Europe, says Mistral boss

• A League of Champions - "Europe has the technology, the money and the cultural memory - what it lacks is companies willing to stand up and be counted"

• Why the 28th Regime Proposal Falls Short of Europe's Challenge

• Europe's late-stage capital drought: Are we giving up our tech sovereignty?

• Britain’s £1B quantum gamble: can it catch up with Europe and the US?

• Why Institutional Capital May Be Pivoting To Space And Deep Tech

• Is Europe Poised To Lead the Quantum Computing Race?

• Why Europe Has A Credible Path To Becoming A Fusion Energy Power

• Europe’s moment is now

• Politicians are flirting with founders but need to commit, writes Sifted founder John Thornhill, as startup leaders across Europe feel pessimistic about the future

• Why Quantum Is Here And Why It Is Not - The Innovator

Major European deep tech startup and scale-up news

• Yann LeCun's AMI Labs raised $1.03 billion to build world models

• The British defence start-up Cambridge Aerospace is in talks to raise new funding for its interceptor systems at a more than $1bn valuation

• Legal AI Startup Legora Raises $550 Million for US Expansion

• Dash0 has raised $110 million at a $1 billion valuation in a Balderton Capital-led round to expand its monitoring platform

• French nuclear startups Jimmy Energy and Calogena are raising €80 million and about €100 million, respectively

• Nebius signs AI infrastructure deals with Meta worth up to $27 billion over 5 years + Nebius Plans to Raise $3.75 Billion in Debt After Meta Deal

• Vitestro raises $70 million for blood collection robot

• Qdrant closes $50M Series B to expand vector search infrastructure

• Amazon acquires Zurich-based Rivr, developer of stair-climbing robots for doorstep delivery

• Ukrainian defence tech Swarmer goes public, shares surge over 6×, peak near 8×

• Qevlar AI raises $30M to help security operations

• Escape raises $18M for AI-powered pentesting

• Apple Acquires Final Cut Pro Plugin Company MotionVFX

Major European deep tech investor news

• Air Street Capital closes $232m solo GP fund — Europe’s largest

• Partech’s €300M Impact Fund targets Europe’s next generation of industrial and climate tech leaders

• Talent accelerator Entrepreneurs First has raised $200m to double down on its strategy to act as “a bridge between the US and Europe”

• €134M Elaia fund targets fusion, AI from Europe's top labs

• Samaipata launches €110M Fund III to back Europe’s next generation of AI-native startups

• Quantexa and Oviva backer Albion VCTs close £90M fund for UK deeptech scale-ups

• French-Italian venture firm 360 Capital has raised €85m for a new fund focused on deeptech startups and university spinouts — with backing from a European defence prime

• Munich-based investor UVC Partners has raised €77m in a first close for a new growth fund, with plans to raise a total of €150m by the end of the summer

• New €70 million GVC Gaesco fund targets InfraTech startups focused on energy, industry and digital infrastructure

• SuperSeed's £50M Physical AI fund: the next UK deeptech play?

• Montis VC reaches €50M first close to back energy and industrial tech startups

• The former chief commercial officer at Swiss robotics scaleup ANYbotics has launched a new operator-led VC firm backed by more than 30 scaleup execs to back deeptech companies

• European spinout investor UI Investissement seeks corporates for new deep tech fund

In other links

• EU to invest €330 million to accelerate fusion energy and support nuclear technologies and skills

• ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EIC PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD 2025 | LinkedIn

• Commission postpones European Innovation Act

• Nvidia-Backed Nscale Plans Huge Data Center Cluster in West Virginia

• Inside Paris’s multi-million-dollar underground quantum lab

• Iran war puts Europe’s air defence startups in the spotlight: ‘The gap is impossible to ignore’

• Innovate UK announces new plan to help tech businesses thrive

• Frustration grows at governance gap in next Horizon Europe

• EU innovation policy must focus more on mobilising private capital, EIB says

• Deep Science Ventures launches new doctoral cohort to turn science into startups

• "We said no to three acquisition offers. Here's what that cost us."

• Applications flood in for first EIC Advanced Innovation Challenge call

• IO+ Week: Europe at a crossroads: AI, deeptech, industry, schools

• Riga to Host Northern Europe's Leading Deep Tech Conference "Deep Tech Atelier 2026"

• Chip buyers in Europe are paying more and tapping backup stores as Iran war hits air freight

• Cambridge Tech Week 2026 to explore how deep tech becomes world-changing

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• "The truth is, anytime someone insists on a method for how to build a successful startup, you should do something different."

• World Models: Computing the Uncomputable

• The Trillion Dollar Race to Automate Our Entire Lives

• Why everyone is talking about Andrej Karpathy's autonomous AI research agent

• Exclusive | Mark Zuckerberg Is Building an AI Agent to Help Him Be CEO

• AWS at 20*: Inside the rise of Amazon’s cloud empire, and what’s at stake in the AI era

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