8 December 2025: Buy European (or, like, not); Black Forest Labs challenges AI giants; almost crunch time for EU AI Gigafactories; and more

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

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Must-reads

• The hidden opportunity of Europe's AI limits

• Backlash builds against EU Commission’s ‘Buy European’ push

• Black Forest Labs: one-year-old German start-up challenges AI giants

• Millions in overheads and five-star comfort at the NATO Innovation Fund

• EU to Open Bidding for AI Gigafactories in Early 2026

• How A Tiny Polish Startup Became The Multi-Billion-Dollar Voice Of AI

• Europe’s diamond moment: a new semiconductor ecosystem in the making

• Talks for UK to Join Flagship EU Defense Fund End in Failure

• How Central Europe fights for a seat at the AI gigafactory table

Insights: data, research, interviews and profiles

• Trio of reports say the EU is betting too heavily on generative AI

• In Focus: Building Hard Tech and Smart Pivots

• TU Delft leading in deep-tech and life sciences spin-offs

• Mikael Johnsson, Oxx: AI Hype, Real Productivity & How Not to Lose the Plot

• The EIC STEP in 2026 | LinkedIn

• 100 Episodes, 10 Powerful Questions: A Special Edition of Deep Tech Catalyst

• Rocket fuel for Europe’s SpaceTech? Founder reacts to EIB’s new €500 million space programme | EU-Startups

• Deep tech at the core: New study outlines Europe’s blueprint for digital sovereignty | Deep Tech News Europe

• The biggest European spacetech deals in H1 2025

• The 2026 EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges - Pilot | LinkedIn

• Finland’s 15 unicorns and $1.5B VC surge: How it became the Nordic deep tech hub — TFN

Opinions worth reading

• Danish report says basic research is key to competitiveness - Research Professional News

• Anton Verkhovodov: Blind Spots in Defense Tech

• Stockholm is Europe’s new capital of capital

• Europe's problem is not tech innovation, it is scalability

• The Nordic startup scene has quietly become one of tech’s fastest-growing hubs

• VC and defence tech — a recipe for disaster? | Sifted

Major European deep tech startup and scale-up news

• Europe’s hottest AI image startup Black Forest Labs bags $300M from a16z, NVIDIA and Salesforce Ventures

• Satellite Startup Iceye Raises at $2.8 Billion Valuation As Europe Boosts Defense Spending

• Quantum Systems’ €180M Series C extension lifts company to €3B+

• OpenAI agrees to acquire AI startup Neptune to boost model training capabilities

• Skeleton opens €220M Leipzig SuperFactory to power Europe’s AI and grid stability

• Emerald Horizon: Austrian SMR Builder Raises at a Valuation of €790 Million

• Audio language model startup Gradium raises $70M to create more realistic voice AI systems

• Titan OS raises $58 million from Highland Europe for its smart TV OS

• Swiss-based Gravis Robotics raises €19.9M to turn any earthmoving machine into a robot

• Stegra Awarded $41M Grant for Green Hydrogen Steel Project

Major European deep tech investor news

• Jolt Capital deeptech Fund V hits €600m first close

• Berlin VC firm Future Energy Ventures raises second fund of €235m

• Germany unifies deeptech funding: DTCF to join HTGF in major VC platform overhaul

• Índico Capital Partners launches €125M Fund

• Berlin VC FoodLabs secures €105m to fix the future of food

• SwissHealth Ventures doubles fund volume to CHF 100 million

• ISAI ANNOUNCES THE FIRST CLOSING OF ITS ISAI VENTURE IV FUND

In other links

• Mistral launches Mistral 3, a family of open models designed to run on laptops, drones, and edge devices

• Danish Presidency cuts EU space law 'red tape' around cyber rules | Euractiv

• EU pledges support to scale-up bio-based innovations

• Women & rising stars honoured at 2025 TechWorks Awards gala

• Greek Microelectronics and Deep-Tech Ecosystem Convenes in Athens - The Pappas Post

• How the HEC Paris MBA network opens doors in tech and innovation | BusinessBecause

• Deeptech: AI, Space and Defence get boosts

• AI Pioneer LeCun Says Meta Won’t Invest in ‘World Model’ Startup

• What you should know about €7M ERC Plus grants

• “I definitely want a European listing”, says Nvidia-backed n8n CEO

• European nations are investing billions in space. How much will go to startups?

• HSBC signs deal to use Mistral’s AI tools

• Dublin's Marama Labs wins out at European deep-tech demo day

• Edinburgh University leads new Accend deep tech accelerator in Europe

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• Inside the Creation of Tilly Norwood, the AI Actress Freaking Out Hollywood

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