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• Nscale, a crypto-mining spinout from Arkon Energy, has emerged as a leading provider of AI data center infrastructure in Europe. • The company has raised nearly $4 billion from major industry players, including Nvidia, Dell, and Nokia, recently closing a $2 billion Series C round. • This funding has propelled Nscale to a $14.6 billion valuation, marking one of the largest Series C rounds for any European company.

• The European Commission has introduced new tech sovereignty laws targeting the cloud, artificial intelligence, and semiconductor sectors. • These legislative measures aim to reduce the European Union's dependence on foreign technology providers and bolster the growth of domestic industries. • This move reflects a broader global trend toward technological nationalism, paralleled by Beijing's recent multibillion-dollar funding efforts to scale national AI champions like DeepSeek.

• The Renew Europe political group is critiquing the EU's Tech Sovereignty Package, arguing that the current approach is insufficient for the region's digital ambitions. • The group emphasizes that the Chips Act must be integrated with a Cloud and AI Development Act to effectively drive demand for European semiconductors and advanced AI. • This shift is critical because current EU regulations reportedly make it impossible to train a compliant Large Language Model (LLM) within the union.

• The European Union unveiled a "tech sovereignty" package on Wednesday aimed at reducing the bloc's reliance on American and Asian technology companies. • The initiative focuses on promoting European alternatives for hardware and services, specifically targeting chips, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. • This move follows supply chain vulnerabilities highlighted by a power struggle at Nexperia, a Netherlands-based chipmaker owned by a Chinese firm.

• The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator has announced a €634 million budget for 2026 to support breakthrough startups and SMEs. • Funding opportunities across Europe vary significantly, ranging from early-stage grants of €30,000 to blended finance structures exceeding €12.5 million. • National governments in Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands continue to provide grants, loans, and tax incentives that are often overlooked by founders favoring venture capital.

• A new report from June 2026 highlights evolving funding standards for early-stage startups across Eastern Europe, including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states. • Investors are shifting focus away from low costs, instead prioritizing founders who demonstrate high technical capability, proven customer evidence, and a global market strategy. • This shift matters as the CEE region seeks to compete internationally by leveraging technical discipline and cross-border scalability rather than just regional affordability.

• European authorities dismantled nine organized crime groups and removed over 27,000 URLs hosting illegal live sports and copyrighted media. • The seven-month initiative, known as Operation Kratos 2, involved collaboration between 14 countries, including the U.S., UK, France, and Italy. • Key partners included anti-piracy associations and major sports entities such as La Liga and the UEFA Europa League to combat digital piracy.

• Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is reported to be preparing a 6 billion euro external funding round as it tries to stay competitive in the global model race. • The fundraising would be one of the largest recent AI capital raises, reflecting continued investor appetite for frontier-model developers even as costs and compute needs surge. • The move matters for U.S. technology markets because capital flows and model competition remain tightly linked across American and Chinese AI ecosystems.

​The first heatwaves of the season reveal how ​ill-prepared governments across the continent are to protect people from increasingly dangerous temperatures• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMeteorological summer has begun, ushered in with scorching heat that struck before spring was up. Although western Europe is now mostly free from last week’s heat dome – which shattered temperature records for May in the UK and Ireland – it is already bracing for yet another sweltering summer. Oppressive days, restless nights and furious fires are brewing. On Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organisation warned us all to prepare for the imminent return of the warming weather pattern El Niño.Scientists have not worked out how many people died during this latest bout of hot weather, but one environmental epidemiologist’s early modelling pegged it at 250 extra deaths in the UK alone on the weekend before temperatures peaked. The full death toll is likely to be particularly high because the heat struck before people had properly adjusted their behaviour to stay safe in the heat. Continue reading...

• Mid-sized UK institutional investors are shifting their focus from identifying opportunities in European markets to optimizing the execution of those investments. • The move is driven by a desire for better portfolio diversification, access to specialized investment strategies, and proximity to a wider range of asset classes. • This trend is expected to accelerate as financial markets undergo further digitization, specifically through the tokenization of securities.

• The European Commission has announced a strategic plan to strengthen Europe's tech sovereignty and establish the region as a global leader in artificial intelligence. • The initiative focuses on increasing digital self-reliance by enhancing capacities in semiconductors, AI, cloud computing, and open-source technologies. • This move is designed to protect Europe's digital independence and accelerate the research, development, and adoption of AI across the continent.

• The European AI ecosystem is currently experiencing a period of extreme hype, characterized by stratospheric valuations and massive funding rounds as of 2026. • Experts warn that "nice-to-have" startups are particularly vulnerable to a potential collapse due to the escalating costs of implementing and maintaining AI technology. • This volatility creates a high-risk environment where the market fluctuates violently between perceived explosive growth and sudden disaster.

• European markets, including the Stoxx 600 and FTSE 100, are reacting to geopolitical tensions and potential trade disruptions. • The U.S. Trade Representative has proposed tariffs of up to 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the EU, China, and Japan, over alleged failures to ban forced labor goods. • In corporate news, Zara parent company Inditex saw its stock rise over 5% following a fiscal first-quarter earnings update on Wednesday.

• A European Central Bank (ECB) working paper reveals that European households continue to show a persistent reluctance to invest in equity markets. • Utilizing data from the ECB's consumer expectations survey, the report highlights a gap between the known long-term wealth-building potential of stocks and actual investor behavior. • This trend is significant as it suggests that a large portion of the population is missing out on financial growth and diversification opportunities.

• SoftBank announced plans on Saturday to construct 3.1 GW of AI data centers in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France by 2031. • The surge in AI ambitions is driving Big Tech toward alternative energy sources, such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), to meet massive power demands. • In a similar trend within the U.S., Amazon reached an agreement with Dominion Energy in 2024 to explore the development of SMR technology.