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ASML’s former CEO believes Donald Trump’s reelection presents a golden opportunity for Europe. Peter Wennink, who led ASML to become the continent’s most valuable tech company, sees a chance for other businesses to thrive by embracing collaboration as the US shifts toward isolationism. “Mr Trump could be the best thing that ever happened to Europe… I think people have woken up,” Wennink said at TNW Conference on Friday. He now wants the continent to seize the moment by replicating a pillar of ASML’s success: open ecosystems. During over a decade as CEO, Wennink oversaw the company’s rise to a €250bn market cap after its stock soared by 1,000%. The firm’s dominance is built on its EUV lithography machines, which are essential to producing the world’s most advanced chips. No other business in the world provides them. Yet Wennink stresses that the tech requires trusted partners to flourish. As the US turns inward, he wants European governments and companies to double down on collaboration. Spooked by Trump’s trade wars and retreat from transatlantic ties, many are already moving in that direction. “[They] are certainly thinking about single-sided dependencies as unacceptable because of the unpredictability of Mr T,” Wennink said. The change in mindset, he adds, is overdue. Wennink recently described the Netherlands as “fat, dumb, and happy.” But the complacency is now fading. He points to shifting strategies among local investors. Amid growing political concerns about the US, many European funds are repatriating their capital. APG, which manages the Netherlands’ largest pension scheme, recently said the bulk of a forecasted €100bn in new capital would be spent in Europe. Just last month, the €57bn pension fund flagged policy risks under Trump as a key reason to reassess its US investments. Wennink has heard these concerns firsthand. “The big question they now ask me is, how much of the money should come back?” he said. “I’m 50 years in business and have never heard pension funds — but also government officials — saying this,” he added. The challenge now, Wennink warns, is reorganising these investments — a process that will take years. In the meantime, US tech giants will continue to advance. Can Europe catch up? Young Sohn, a board member at Arm and founding managing partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, believes it can. He points to ASML and Arm emerging from Europe to become two of the world’s biggest hardware companies. How did they do it? “It was about ecosystems,” Sohn said. UK-based Arm is a prime example. The firm’s chip designs now power over 99% of smartphones, billions of devices, and countless AI applications. But when Arm launched in the early 1990s, it was a small upstart in a field dominated by the likes of Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments. Sohn argued the company succeeded by focusing on collaboration. “They decided to be a peacemaker,” he said. “They decided to give their IP to pretty much everybody around the world so that everybody doesn’t have to recreate these processing architectures that are needed for lower power… This is a company that built an ecosystem of startup companies.” Wennink attributes ASML’s success to partnerships as well. The company’s ecosystem of suppliers, universities, research institutes, innovation programmes, tech firms, and customers shaped its direction from the start. ASML actively sought input from all of them. “When something’s very complex, you don’t know what you don’t know — but somebody else might,” he said. That model, he argues, is ideal for Europe — especially as Trump reshapes the US tech landscape. “I strongly believe that there is a European mentality… that there’s an intrinsic desire to collaborate,” Wennink said. “And the main condition for collaboration is that you have a fair share of the risks and rewards that you’re driving through together. And that is a European trait.” source

Switzerland pours more of its venture capital into deep tech than any other country, according to new data. The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025 found that 60% of all Swiss venture funding between 2019 and 2025 went to deep tech — far surpassing any other nation. The capital represents a big bet on cutting-edge science developing into global businesses.   Startups in the sector pulled in $1.9bn in funding last year, up from $1.4bn in 2023, and are on track to hit $2.3bn in 2025. The report was produced by the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation, a non-profit backed by telecom firm Swisscom and banking giant UBS to boost Swiss innovation.  It was published in collaboration with startup data platforms Dealroom.co and Startupticker. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! After analysing over 1,500 startups, the report found that deep tech companies have already created more than $100bn in combined enterprise value.  It ranked ETH Zurich and EPFL among Europe’s top four universities for producing deep tech spinouts — behind only Oxford and Cambridge. “Switzerland has long excelled in fundamental research, but we believe the next decade belongs to the scientists and engineers who turn that research into global companies,” said Alex Stöckl, founding partner at VC firm Founderful, which also contributed to the report. AI and machine learning startups are increasingly taking the lion’s share of deep tech investment in the Alpine nation.  In 2024, almost one-third of all Swiss deep-tech funding went to AI-first startups — triple the share recorded in 2020. The funding went into everything from software for humanoids to chocolate-sorting algorithms.   Meanwhile, fields like robotics, climate tech, and biotech — a Swiss staple — continue to grow, thanks to large rounds from the likes of Neustark, Neo Medical, and Transmutex. Yet the report also highlights a gap: nearly 96% of late-stage investment comes from global, not local, funds, indicating an opportunity for domestic capital to catch up. Stöckl has previously called the Swiss tech ecosystem a “powerhouse” that’s only just starting to claim its place on the global stage. Data suggests its foundations are strong. In addition to its backing for deep tech, the country has the highest number of unicorn companies per capita in Europe and has topped the Global Innovation Index for 13 years in a row. source

The race to dominate AI infrastructure has left Europe trailing the US — but the continent still has a shot at global leadership in AI apps. That was the verdict of Dutch tech leaders at the Assembly, the invite-only policy track of TNW Conference in Amsterdam. While Silicon Valley controls the scaffolding for AI, they urged Europe to focus on building apps on top. Leading the call was Jeroen van Glabbeek, CEO and founder of CM.com, a customer engagement platform with a market cap of around €217mn and annual revenues of €274mn in 2024. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Van Glabbeek believes the US advantage in AI infrastructure could become a launchpad for European software. “The infrastructure is already there,” he said. That infrastructure is being built with unprecedented investment. In 2025 alone, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft plan to spend over $300bn (€261bn) combined on data centres, networking, and cloud services for AI, according to CNBC. Van Glabbeek called it “the biggest investment in technology in the history of mankind.” European tech firms can’t match this scale of spending on hardware. But they can capitalise by building AI apps on the foundations laid in the US. Europe already has a strong record of building top-tier apps, from Spotify and Grammarly to Revolut and Klarna. In the AI era, Van Glabbeek envisions a new wave of them emerging from the region. “We won’t win the hyperscaler AI platform play, but there’s still something positive to compete for — and it’s on the application side,” he said. The sentiment was echoed by other tech leaders on stage. Sohrab Hosseini, co-founder of Amsterdam-based generative AI startup Orq.ai, highlighted the opportunities at the “orchestration and application levels,” while Lucien Burm, President of the Dutch Startup Association, pointed to where the profit lies. “The money is probably to be made in the application layer,” he said. “We’re not going to win that much in very deep AI hardware tech.” To fulfil Europe’s AI potential, the speakers called for a trio of financial changes: greater risk appetite from investors, less red tape around public funding, and more local procurement. But their most pressing demand is one that reverberates across the continent’s tech sector: innovation-friendly regulation. source

A British-built manufacturing satellite successfully launched into orbit on its first test mission. Cardiff-based startup Space Forge launched the probe — called ForgeStar-1 — aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday. The launch marks the first time the UK has sent a spacecraft into orbit to produce new materials in the unique conditions of space, according to the startup.  Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge, hailed it as the start of a “new era” for materials science and industry.   The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! “We’ve built and launched Britain’s first manufacturing satellite, and it’s alive in orbit, that’s a massive technical achievement,” he said. “Now, we take the next step: proving that we can create the right environment for manufacturing in space.” The oven-sized satellite will harness the conditions of space to produce “supermaterials” that are supposedly impossible to make on Earth. Western recently likened the tech to a sourdough starter — a small but potent base for growing something much bigger. “Our satellites utilise the zero-gravity, ultra-cold, vacuum environment of space to produce tiny crystals of a higher quality than could ever be made otherwise,” he told TNW in April. Once returned to Earth, the crystal “seeds” can be used to grow larger crystals that form the basis of ultra-efficient computer chips, which could power everything from data centres to telecoms networks.  Space Forge claims these semiconductors could halve the time it takes to charge an EV. The technology could also be used to make new metal alloys or pharmaceutical drugs. At least, that’s the idea. Space Forge hasn’t yet produced any materials in space and has been patiently building ForgeStar-1 for the past four years to validate the technology.  The company faced a setback in 2023 when its first satellite was lost after Virgin Orbit’s satellite launcher experienced an anomaly and failed to reach orbit, destroying the payload.   Now that its first satellite is in orbit, the company hopes to produce its first-ever materials in space. However, the ForgeStar-1 satellite will be deliberately burned up in Earth’s atmosphere after completing its experiments, as the company has not yet secured the necessary certification to bring it back to Earth, Western said. Still, the company noted that the burn-up will demonstrate that even if the re-entry system were to fail, the satellite would completely disintegrate. The mission will also deliver critical test data, telemetry, and validation needed to support future in-space manufacturing missions. Space Forge’s next satellite, ForgeStar-2, is designed to manufacture materials in space and return them safely to Earth. The startup recently secured $30mn in a funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund to accelerate its development. source

Ethics-focused phone makers Fairphone and Murena have unveiled their latest collaboration: the Murena Fairphone (Gen 6), a smartphone that pairs repairable hardware with privacy-focused software.  The release coincides with the launch of the Fairphone 6, which runs on Android. The Murena edition swaps Google’s ecosystem for /e/OS, an open-source operating system designed to minimise data collection.  The new device builds on the foundation laid by the Murena Fairphone 5, which promised a 10-year lifespan and a higher bar for sustainable electronics.  The Murena Fairphone 6 comes with an /e/OS operating system that promises better privacy over Android or Apple. Credit: Murena The Gen 6 model introduces a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor, offering superior performance to the previous chip, Qualcomm’s QCM6490. The new model comes with a similar specced triple 50MP dual camera system. Its battery, though, is smaller and lasts longer. It’s also fitted with tougher Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the LCD display. Overall, the new version is 9% lighter than before.  TNW Conference 2025 – That’s a wrap! Check out the highlights! As with the previous model, users can replace individual parts using just a screwdriver. The number of parts you can chop and change has increased from 10 to 12, including the screen, USB-C port, and speakers. The smartphone comes with a five-year warranty, but the companies still hedge their bets that the device will last 10 years or more.  The Murena Fairphone 6 has 12 repaceable parts. Credit: Fairphone Netherlands-based Fairphone focuses on the environmental and social costs of hardware by sourcing conflict-free materials and building its devices to last as long as possible. Meanwhile, France’s Murena builds operating systems and smartphones — one of which we tested for ourselves — that offer a more private alternative to Apple or Android.  Murena’s “deGoogled” /e/OS strips out Google services and trackers, replacing them with its own apps for email, calendar, and cloud storage. A recent 3.0 software update added new privacy tools, end-to-end encryption, and enhanced parental controls, the company said. This marks the fourth time the two companies have partnered, dating back to the Fairphone 3 in 2020 — a model that Murena still supports with software updates.   “We’re proud of our collaboration with Murena,” said Fairphone CEO Raymond van Eck. “Together, we’re giving people a phone they can truly feel good about using — inside and out.” The Murena Fairphone (Gen 6) is available from today in the UK, EU, and several other European markets via Murena.com at a starting price of €649. US customers can pre-order now, with deliveries starting in August.   source

Without water, the average human would die after about five days. Without energy, our society as we know it would collapse. But what about a world without AI? According to British business leaders, the consequences would be equally catastrophic. A new report by London-based software firm Endava, surveying 500 entrepreneurs, found that two-thirds of respondents rank AI as socially vital — on par with water and electricity. A whopping 93% of the respondents want industry and government to implement AI as fast as possible. Meanwhile, 84% of say they use AI as a “companion” or conversation partner at least once a month, while two-thirds trust AI to make fully automated decisions about their lives.  However, nearly all respondents (96%) believe that global AI adoption needs oversight from an independent international body, and 94% want that body to be government-led. At the same time, more than half (55%) warn that existing infrastructure limitations could hold back AI’s full potential. Endava’s CTO, Matt Cloke, described the results as “fascinating,” noting the tension between trust in AI and the desire for guardrails.  The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! ​​”Many are not only using AI regularly, but are relying on it to support both business-critical and deeply personal decisions,” he said. “But people want to see the right frameworks in place before AI becomes fully embedded in society.” The findings come amid a surge in AI investment — and a growing hype bubble — as the technology permeates virtually every corner of our lives. Increasingly, AI is being considered as critical infrastructure.    In 2018 — four years before the launch of ChatGPT sparked the GenAI boom  — Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicted artificial intelligence would have a more profound impact on the world than “electricity or fire.” Last year, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang called AI “the most important technology of our time.” Nevertheless, some tech leaders are not so optimistic. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of AI,” recently warned that there was a 10-20% chance that AI would wipe out humanity within the next 30 years. Stephen Hawking, two years before his death, said that artificially intelligent machines would be “either the best or worst thing to happen to humanity.” Even Elon Musk has called AI an “existential threat.”  Whether AI turns out to be society’s next electricity or its next wildfire remains to be seen. But if Endava’s survey is anything to go by, UK business leaders are betting on the former.   source

It is a common assumption that quantum computing is a long-term bet that may take at least a decade to turn a profit. But that’s not always the case.  At TNW Conference in Amsterdam last week, Jan Goetz, co-founder and co-CEO of Finnish quantum startup IQM, revealed his company began earning revenue much earlier — by taking a page from SpaceX’s funding playbook. “When we started, it was a classic deep tech case, and people thought revenue would be five to 10 years out,” Goetz said. “No, that’s stupid. You can make money already with these very early-stage machines.” Rather than wait for a fully mature product, IQM has focused on selling quantum computers in their nascent stages to state-funded research institutions. The approach is similar to how SpaceX sold early rockets to public sector clients, even when many of those rockets failed shortly after launch. The idea, Goetz explained, was to build early partnerships that would fund future development. Founded in 2018, IQM signed its first contract in 2020 and sold its first system soon after. The company has so far sold 13 quantum computers globally and has a bookings pipeline exceeding €90mn, making it one of the industry’s front-runners. It’s also the second best-funded quantum hardware company in Europe, having raised a total of $210mn (€181mn).  The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Goetz said the biggest challenge for quantum computing is not technological, but financial. While he does not think Europe has lost the tech race, he warned that without serious capital in place, the continent would not be able to compete with countries like the US or China. “Europe has excellent universities and research projects, but can we scale these into competitive businesses and industries?” he asked. “We see industry starting to engage, but the level of investment is still quite small.” Jan Goetz co-founded IQM alongside Mikko Möttönen, Kuan Yen Tan, and Juha Vartiainen in 2018. Credit: IQM Goetz believes the next major shift in the quantum computing landscape will not come from end users, but from the infrastructure layer – specifically, the companies that build and operate data centres.  He expects them to expand these investments rapidly. “I think that’s what’s going to happen next on the private side, and hopefully we can really enable the commercial uses so that all of the end users can help build up the industry.” Goetz also addressed the potential impact of artificial intelligence. He noted that it will remain technically challenging to push a lot of data through quantum computers for the foreseeable future, which will limit their capacity for AI applications. However, there is an emerging role for quantum in AI, particularly in creating training data. IQM is developing this capability through a collaboration with Siemens on quantum-enhanced machine learning. “What quantum computers are really good at is creating true randomness,” Goetz said. “[They] can actually be used to generate synthetic data for training AI models more efficiently… It’s like democratic voting. You bundle a group of qubits together, and if a few go wrong, the rest can correct them. The majority gives you the right answer, and the errors get flipped back.” source

Communication with a privately funded European space capsule was lost Tuesday shortly after the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere.  The capsule launched on a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday. The Exploration Company, which built the spacecraft, described the mission as a “partial success” and a “partial failure.” “The capsule was launched successfully, powered the payloads nominally in orbit, stabilised itself after separation with the launcher, re-entered and re-established communication after blackout,” the Munich-based startup said in a LinkedIn post today.  “But it encountered an issue afterwards, based on our current best knowledge, and we lost communication a few minutes before splash down,” it added. TNW Conference 2025 – That’s a wrap! Check out the highlights! This communication loss suggests a possible malfunction or anomaly, though the company says it is still investigating the root cause. It’s also not yet clear whether the spacecraft was damaged or lost entirely. The Exploration Company did not immediately reply to our request for comment.   The launch — dubbed Mission Possible — marked the second test flight for The Exploration Company. The company’s inaugural mission, Mission Bikini, was a smaller-scale reentry demonstrator launched aboard the maiden flight of Ariane 6 in July 2024. However, a malfunction in the rocket’s upper stage prevented the capsule from executing its planned reentry manoeuvre, leaving it stranded in orbit. Mission Possible carried 300 kilograms of commercial cargo, including payloads for cosmetic and pharmaceutical research. It also hosted cremated remains and DNA samples from customers around the globe.  “We apologise to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads,” the company said. We’ll update this article once we have more information on the status of Mission Possible. source

Europe must take bigger bets on young founders to build tomorrow’s tech giants, industry leaders urged today. Speaking at TNW Conference, investors and CEOs called for stronger support for entrepreneurial ambition — before Europe’s best ideas and brightest minds head elsewhere. Kieran Hill, General Partner at 20VC — a venture capital firm founded by podcast host Harry Stebbings — urged the continent’s institutions to expand their appetite for risk. “We need to change how we sell ambition,” he said. Hill believes changing this mindset is key to producing Europe’s next business leaders. He warned that today’s talented founders often want to be in the US, where the business leaders who inspire them are based. It’s also, he added, a country that truly celebrates entrepreneurial success. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! “When you get to a certain phase in Europe, you’re naturally drawn to go to Silicon Valley or you’re drawn to go to New York — because that’s believed to be where the best opportunity lies,” he said. His words were echoed by Nicola Ebmeyer, co-founder and CEO of Gain.pro, a private market intelligence and deal sourcing platform. The Amsterdam-based business regularly ranks among Europe’s fastest-growing startups. At first, however, Ebmeyer’s ambitions attracted cynicism at home. She already had a stable career at McKinsey when she decided to found a startup. Her plan was often derided as dangerously risky. “I have never heard so many times in my life, ‘Nicola, you are probably making the worst decision in your life’,” she said. Ebmeyer believes her experience reflects a broader cultural problem in Europe. She relates it to a common expression: “You can’t be what you can’t see.” The phrase is normally applied to underrepresented groups, but she argues it “holds equally true for the entrepreneurial journey.” “You need people around you to show you what’s possible; to lift the bar, to take you by the hand, to show you can also do [it],” she said. Hill has his own plan to create more of these leaders. In March, 20VC backed Project Europe, an early-stage fund for entrepreneurs under 25. More than 120 European founders — from companies including Klarna, Mistral AI, and Shopify — have joined forces to provide investment and mentorship for the project. The goal is to keep ambitious, talented entrepreneurs on the continent — and give them the support they need to thrive. Hill argues there’s an urgent need for such backing. He notes that young founders in Europe have the same ambitions as their counterparts in the US, but nowhere near the same level of financial support. “The infrastructure here is just so unwilling to take risks on young people,” he said. He wants other investors to follow Project Europe’s lead. He criticised the continent’s current crop of VCs for focusing too much on business models and too little on founder motivation. “That’s a symptom of Europe,” he said. “It’s not how I operate, but it’s how I see 95% of VCs. And the risk appetite is just so f*cking minimal.” Amid these criticisms, Hill also highlighted the positive momentum. He noted that several of today’s fastest-growing startups — including Mistral, Synthesia, and Loveable — are now based in Europe. To build more of them, he and Ebmeyer agree, the continent must embrace greater risk — and bet bigger on its young founders. source

Dutch tech scaleup Optics11 has launched an underwater monitoring system that uses light waves to “listen” for the presence of foreign objects. Called OptiBarrier, the system can detect enemy submarines, drones, and surface vessels from up to 150km away — without revealing its own position. “We listen with light,” the company’s CEO, Paul Heiden, told TNW. “That means our technology is entirely undetectable and can’t be jammed.”  The standard method for listening underwater is through electromagnetic fields. Devices emit electromagnetic pulses and detect the presence of an object, such as a ship or submarine, based on the waves that bounce back. That works, but it’s detectable to enemy vessels and can be jammed.  The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! OptiBarrier takes a different approach. Sound waves — such as those from a passing ship or submarine — cause tiny pressure changes in the underwater fibre optic sensors, altering how the light moves.  These minute changes are transmitted via cable to land. There, specialised software interprets the disturbances, turning photonic pulses into meaningful acoustic data.  According to Heiden, the system automatically compares the noise to an extensive military database of vessel sounds. “From the sound pattern alone, we can often tell what kind of ship is approaching. In some cases, we can identify the exact make and model,” he said.  That level of intelligence could give navies and coastal authorities a major tactical advantage, offering early warnings of approaching threats while remaining invisible to the enemy.  OptiBarrier has already been tested at the Seabed Security Experimentation Centre (SeaSEC) in The Hague, Netherlands. The company plans to roll it out in Europe first, but is hush-hush about the timeline. The system launches amid growing concerns over maritime security. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, fears have intensified over the vulnerability of subsea infrastructure such as subsea cables, offshore wind farms, and gas pipelines.  The war and broader geopolitical tensions are pushing European governments to invest in maritime defence tech, including deploying autonomous ocean surveillance drones and building new submarines.  Optics11 has also developed a second product, OptiArray, tailored specifically for submarines and underwater drones. Using the same fibre optic technology, this version is designed not for the seafloor but as an antenna mounted directly on the vessel’s exterior. It allows these underwater vehicles to detect nearby threats while remaining completely undetectable themselves.  The Royal Netherlands Navy is already testing OptiArray, and plans to integrate it into its new class of submarines, set for roll-out in 2032.    source