European Startup Funding Hits Six-Year Deal-Count Low as AI Absorbs 60 Percent

• Irish construction firms are expanding their operations into Europe following a surge in data center growth, leveraging expertise gained from Ireland's domestic boom. • While grid capacity concerns have slowed new projects within Ireland, companies like Sisk are now securing contracts in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

• The European Union is preparing a strategic initiative to expand its AI capabilities by funding the construction of new data centers. • Member states are splitting into two camps: Germany, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain are pushing for larger facilities, while Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, and Poland are competing for smaller-scale centers.

• South Korea’s Kospi index surged nearly 18% as artificial intelligence-related chipmaking stocks rebounded following losses earlier in the week. • Other Asian markets saw significant movement, including an 8% jump in Taiwan’s Taiex driven by a 10% increase for chipmaker TSMC and a 0.9% gain for the Shanghai Composite.

• Guotai Haitong Securities hosted the "AI Foresight, Co-Creating the Future" forum during the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference held from July 17 to 20. • The event gathered nearly 1,000 experts and business leaders to showcase the company's "All in AI" strategy and its deployment across the securities industry chain.

• Asia-Pacific markets surged on July 31, led by a massive 16% rebound in South Korea's Kospi and a 6% jump in Japan's Nikkei 225. • The rally was driven by renewed investor optimism in AI spending following strong earnings reports from tech giants Microsoft and Amazon.

• The KOSPI index surged 15%, climbing past the 6,400 mark as the AI chip rally returned to Asian markets. • The rally was driven by sharp rebounds in Samsung and SK Hynix, following strong cloud earnings reports from Microsoft and Amazon.

• South Korea's Kospi index experienced a record 17% surge, driven by a powerful rally in AI-related technology stocks. • Major chipmakers led the growth, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both jumping over 23%, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 10%.

• DataTribe's latest report indicates that seed funding in cybersecurity is shifting toward AI agents, trusted compute, and identity controls. • The demand for AI security investment is rising as founders face increased competition, with Product Hunt launches reaching their highest levels since late 2023.

• The European Commission launched a call for tenders on July 30 to fund the construction of seven AI megafactories across Europe. • With a budget of €5 billion, these facilities will integrate supercomputers and data centers to provide the massive computing power needed to train next-generation AI models.

• The European Union has launched a call for tenders to establish up to seven "AI Gigafactories" to significantly increase the continent's computing capacity. • Backed by a €30 billion investment, these facilities can be located within a single Member State or developed as cross-border distributed computing networks.

• A benchmark study of 3,000 European IT decision-makers reveals that while Europe's overall digital maturity score rose to 69/100, fragmented data and content silos are hindering AI progress. • Despite growth in cloud and cybersecurity, content services maturity saw a sharp decline of 13 points to 56/100, marking the only category to drop.