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Danish startup Teton has used Gefion, one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers, to turbocharge the development of its AI “care companion” for hospital staff.  Teton installs cameras and sensors in hospital rooms to gather real-time data. This gets fed to an AI algorithm, creating a virtual “digital twin” of the room. The model monitors patient and staff behaviour such as movement, breathing, or posture...

Unprecedented power cuts swept across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France on Monday — instantly unravelling the tech-dependent lives of me and tens of millions of others.  At first, I wasn’t worried. Then the owner of my Lisbon apartment forwarded me a link: an article in The Sun newspaper titled “Spain & Portugal hit by huge power cuts…” I tried to open it, but...

Swedish electric plane startup Heart Aerospace is relocating its headquarters from Gothenburg to Los Angeles in a move it says will “bolster product development.”  The company will lay off all of its 75 employees in Sweden, company spokesperson Christina Zander told TNW. “Recruitment in the US is ongoing,” she added.   Founded in 2018, Heart Aerospace is building a hybrid-electric 30-passenger airliner called the ES-30....

Dutch neobank Bunq today launched a crypto trading service for over 300 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The service launches today and is available to Bunq users in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Belgium. It’s offered via Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.   Bunq plans to “gradually expand” the offering to the rest of the European Economic Area (EEA), the...

German defence tech startup ARX Robotics has secured €31mn to ramp up production of its autonomous battlefield robots, which look like mini tanks — minus the guns.  ARX — backed by NATO’s Innovation Fund — will also use the fresh capital to advance its operating system, Mithras OS. The software is designed to modernise existing military vehicles through AI, sensor systems, and autonomous driving...

In the global race to become the next big tech hotspot, many countries pour billions into nurturing homegrown talent, courting VCs, and crafting startup-friendly policies. While some struggle to gain momentum, others seem to leap forward—fast. So, what sets apart these rapid risers? What’s the secret to ecosystem transformation? Look no further than Bulgaria—a country that’s quietly but confidently building one of Europe’s most...

Five standout scaleups from Southern Europe have reached the finals of TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” They’ll now face off with rivals from across Europe to be crowned the continent’s hottest scaleup. Southern Europe’s digital scene is still maturing — but growth is accelerating. Deep talent pools and academic strength are now backed by rising support from investors and policymakers. These developments...

As our favourite Dutch holiday approaches, TNW is celebrating the tech titans shaping the future in the Netherlands. Our beloved home country is the proud parent of a prodigious brood of digital talent. It’s given birth to cultivated meat, raised Booking.com to become the world’s largest online travel agency, and watched with joy as ASML grew into Europe’s most valuable tech company. The family...

Researchers at Toshiba Europe have used quantum key distribution (QKD) cryptography to send messages a record 254km using a traditional fibre optic cable network. It’s the first time scientists have achieved a coherent quantum communication using existing telecomms infrastructure. The breakthrough marks a step closer to ultra-secure quantum encryption, which could fend off hacks from even the most advanced classical and quantum computers of...

Poland is set to power up its first full-stack quantum computer this year, following a deal with Helsinki-based startup IQM. IQM, Europe’s best-funded quantum hardware company, will install the machine at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (WUST) in Poland.  Named “Spark,” the device is a superconducting quantum computer. This means that it uses superconducting circuits to create and manipulate quantum bits or...

Last year, NN Group and Rubio Impact Ventures launched the NN Social Innovation Startup Award providing grants and mentoring to startups to tackle mental, physical, and financial well-being challenges with tech-backed solutions. Over 360 startups applied. Based on the success of the first edition, NN Group and Rubio Impact Ventures will be hosting a second edition of the NN Social Innovation Startup Award at...

Europe’s climate tech startups raised $2.3bn (€2bn) in the first quarter of this year — the lowest total since Q3 2020, according to Dealroom data.  Behind the headline figure lies a complex mix of growing pains, shifting investor focuses, and broader VC market dynamics, experts told TNW. More specifically, they said the slowdown stems from a blend of market maturity, strategic repositioning, AI’s outsized...

German biotech startup Ovo Labs has developed new technologies to “rejuvenate” human eggs, potentially boosting the chances of conception.  The therapeutics are designed to enhance in vitro fertilisation (IVF), one of the most transformative advances in reproductive medicine. The first baby was born via IVF more than 40 years ago. Since then, the technology has helped millions of women get pregnant. However, IVF can...

UK startup Aquark Technologies has used Boaty McBoatface — the internet’s best-loved submarine — to test its quantum sensing technology underwater for the first time. The NATO-backed company put its so-called “cold atom” system inside the autonomous submarine. Boaty McBoatface then descended to the bottom of a giant indoor tank at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton. The idea was to test how...

Europe can dramatically cut its dependence on imported fossil fuels by adopting electricity-based technologies, according to a new report. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, and renewables could cut global reliance on imported fossil fuels by 70% when used to replaced them in transport, heating, and power, according to energy think tank Ember. They would also save importers an estimated $1.3 trillion (€1.14 trillion) globally each year,...

Highly dependent on imported fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies from foreign powers such as the US, China, and Russia, Europe’s energy security is in a precarious state. One potential fix? Harnessing nuclear fusion — the same atom-colliding reaction that powers the Sun and stars. While not yet proven commercially, fusion energy could provide Europe with a vital source of safe, locally produced, always-on...

Europe’s housing crisis is deepening. High building costs, tight regulations, and labour shortages have choked the supply of affordable homes. As cities swell with new arrivals and construction workers retire en masse, the gap between supply and demand is only widening. Endless solutions have been proposed. Mass housing projects, revamping the planning system, modular buildings, pre-fabricated materials, rent controls, and restrictions on corporate acquisitions...

IBM and the European Space Agency (ESA) today launched TerraMind, a new open-source AI model with an “intuitive” understanding of Earth. According to the research team, the system is the best-performing AI model for Earth observation. In an ESA-led evaluation, TerraMind beat 12 leading AI models on the PANGAEA benchmark — a community standard for Earth observation. The model excelled at various real-world tasks,...

As the Trump administration ramps up what academics call a  “war on science,” US researchers are increasingly looking to Europe for new opportunities — which could be good news for the continent’s tech sectors. France, in particular, is positioning itself as a safe haven for scientists. In a not-so-subtle appeal to disaffected US talent on Friday, the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called on researchers...

Five flourishing French scaleups have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The quintet will now compete for the title of top scaleup in Europe. The contest concludes on June 19-20, when the TECH5 champion will be announced on the main stage of TNW Conference. But first, the contenders have to win a regional crown. For the French challengers, that’s no...

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope say they have detected the “strongest evidence yet” that life exists outside our solar system.   Scientists at the University of Cambridge found signs of the gases dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b. On Earth, these gases are only produced by living organisms like phytoplankton, suggesting that K2-18b may also support...

Songs generated by AI tools such as Suno and Udio are flooding Deezer — but the French music streaming platform is trying to fight back.  Deezer said on Wednesday that users are adding over 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks to its platform each day. This bot-made audio now makes up 18% of “total uploaded content” — almost double the 10% figure the company shared in...

A new contest is searching for solutions to a defining problem of the AI era: soaring energy consumption. The Energy Innovation for AI Startup Challenge launches amid growing concern over the environmental cost of artificial intelligence. Just last month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global electricity demand from data centres is set to more than double by 2030 — with AI the...

The Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs have ruffled feathers across the world — and reignited Europe’s push for digital sovereignty.  One of the key focus points has been Europe’s cloud infrastructure, which is currently dominated by US tech giants: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Together, the “big three” account for more than 50% of the continent’s cloud market. “Europe...