A new hope: HV Capital raises record €710M to invest in European startups


The first quarter of 2023 was pretty bleak for the European startup ecosystem, to say the least. Funding fell a whopping 57% compared to Q1 of 2022, and fundraisin

UK competition watchdog probes AI market amid safety concerns


The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a review of the artificial intelligence market, in an effort to weigh up the potential opportunities and risks of a technology Bill Gates dubs as “revolutionary as mobile phones and the Internet.” The Competiti

We’re closer than ever before to creating a real lightsaber


Ever dreamed of being a Jedi? Armed with an elegant weapon for a more civilised age, many of us have fantasised about cutting a bright green (or blue) swathe across a galaxy far, far away. Disney even released a patent in 2018 for one such device, although ‘Swo

German chip plant breaks ground in ‘major step forward’ for EU’s semiconductor industry


Germany’s Infineon has broken ground on its new €5bn semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden, less than six months since announcing the project.  Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed

Europol’s Operation SpecTor leads to massive dark web drug bust


Coordinated by Europol and the US Department of Justice, yesterday, Operation SpecTor seized over €50mn in cash and cryptocurrency, 850 kg of drugs (including amphetamines, cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy pills) and 117 firearms. The latter, contr

23% of jobs to be disrupted in the next 5 years, WEF predicts


Nearly a quarter of the world’s jobs will be disrupted in the coming five years, the latest report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has found. Specifically, the job market will experience a 23% churn, as a result of emerging and vanishing positions. Accordin

‘Break them open’ – new EU rules coming for Big Tech


As dry and bureaucratic as EU legislation may seem, it can also be groundbreaking and, dare we say it, radical. The bloc has taken a global lead in tackling regulation in areas such as green taxonomy and the much-anticipated AI Act. European

This AI-powered exoskeleton does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to


Move over Tony Stark, there’s a new player in town. Augsburg-based startup German Bionic has developed wearable exoskeletons that endow superhuman strength — although they are a little more modest than Iron Man’s. Founded in 2017, the startup is o

AI ‘godfather’ quits Google and warns of dangers ahead


Dr Geoffry Hinton, widely referred to as AI’s “godfather,” has confirmed in an interview with the New York Times that he has quit his job at Google — to talk about the dangers of the technology he helped develop. Hinton’s pioneering work in neural networks — fo

Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bike lane unveiled in Germany


At the beginning of the year, news readers were treated to images of German police forcefully removing climate activists from the village of Lützerath to make way for an open-air coal mine. Indeed, Germany may have averted a looming energy crisis this past


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