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Swedish prosecutors are set to serve Northvolt with a suspicion of gross manslaughter notice following the death of a worker at the EV battery-maker’s struggling gigafactory in the country’s icy North, the Financial Times reports.  Environmental prosecutor Christer B Jarlås told the paper that officials will deliver the formal notice in the coming weeks, which indicates Northvolt is under investigation for possible legal responsibility in the incident.  The notice pertains to a 25-year-old Northvolt employee who died on December 15 after suffering severe burns sustained during an explosion on a production line at the startup’s megaplant in Skellefteå a month…This story continues at The Next Web

Swedish prosecutors are set to serve Northvolt with a suspicion of gross manslaughter notice following the death of a worker at the EV battery-maker’s struggling gigafactory in the country’s icy North, the Financial Times reports.  Environmental prosecutor Christer B Jarlås told the paper that officials will deliver the formal notice in the coming weeks, which indicates Northvolt is under investigation for possible legal responsibility in the incident.  The notice pertains to a 25-year-old Northvolt employee who died on December 15 after suffering severe burns sustained during an explosion on a production line at the startup’s megaplant in Skellefteå a month…

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This month, the European Commission published Mario Draghi’s long-awaited EU competitiveness report. Its key finding? The EU must overcome the innovation gap to prevent economic slowdown. According to the report, only four out of the 50 leading tech companies across the globe are based in Europe. In his address to the European Parliament, the former Italian premier said: “The core problem in Europe is that new companies with new technologies are not rising in our economy. In fact, there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over €100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last…This story continues at The Next Web

This month, the European Commission published Mario Draghi’s long-awaited EU competitiveness report. Its key finding? The EU must overcome the innovation gap to prevent economic slowdown. According to the report, only four out of the 50 leading tech companies across the globe are based in Europe. In his address to the European Parliament, the former Italian premier said: “The core problem in Europe is that new companies with new technologies are not rising in our economy. In fact, there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over €100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last…

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Arm wants to upgrade the brains inside our mobile devices. The chip designer — whose architectures power 99% of smartphones — envisions AI bringing a new wave of breakthroughs to our handsets. The company outlined this plan after the release of Llama 3.2 — Meta’s first open-source models that processes both images and text.Arm said the models run “seamlessly” on its compute platform. The smaller, text-based LLMs — Llama 3.2 1B and 3B — are optimised for Arm-based mobile chips. Consequently, the models can deliver faster user experiences on smartphones. Processing more AI at the edge can also create energy and cost savings. These enhancements…This story continues at The Next Web

Arm wants to upgrade the brains inside our mobile devices. The chip designer — whose architectures power 99% of smartphones — envisions AI bringing a new wave of breakthroughs to our handsets. The company outlined this plan after the release of Llama 3.2 — Meta’s first open-source models that processes both images and text.Arm said the models run “seamlessly” on its compute platform. The smaller, text-based LLMs — Llama 3.2 1B and 3B — are optimised for Arm-based mobile chips. Consequently, the models can deliver faster user experiences on smartphones. Processing more AI at the edge can also create energy and cost savings. These enhancements…

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UK startup Pact has raised £9mn in funding and opened a new factory to scale up the “world’s first” sustainable and scalable biomaterial made from collagen — the primary building block of your skin. The material — dubbed Oval — looks, feels, and ages much like leather, but without the environmental impacts. Oval doesn’t just look like leather, it also responds to scratches, water, and sunlight in much the same way. I guess that makes sense seeing as it technically is a kind of skin — albeit one made in a lab.   Oval looks, feels, and ages much like…This story continues at The Next Web

UK startup Pact has raised £9mn in funding and opened a new factory to scale up the “world’s first” sustainable and scalable biomaterial made from collagen — the primary building block of your skin. The material — dubbed Oval — looks, feels, and ages much like leather, but without the environmental impacts. Oval doesn’t just look like leather, it also responds to scratches, water, and sunlight in much the same way. I guess that makes sense seeing as it technically is a kind of skin — albeit one made in a lab.   Oval looks, feels, and ages much like…

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Amsterdam-based scaleup Mews has bagged $100mn in credit financing as it looks to swallow up competitors and become a market leader in SaaS software for the hospitality industry. Vista Credit Partners, the credit-investing arm of tech-focused private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, dished out the funding.  Mews, based at TNW City, has built a cloud-based system that helps hotels and other hospitality businesses manage their daily operations more efficiently. It handles tasks like booking rooms, checking guests in and out, processing payments, managing housekeeping, and providing tools for reporting and analytics. The fresh funding comes just months after Mews secured…This story continues at The Next Web

Amsterdam-based scaleup Mews has bagged $100mn in credit financing as it looks to swallow up competitors and become a market leader in SaaS software for the hospitality industry. Vista Credit Partners, the credit-investing arm of tech-focused private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, dished out the funding.  Mews, based at TNW City, has built a cloud-based system that helps hotels and other hospitality businesses manage their daily operations more efficiently. It handles tasks like booking rooms, checking guests in and out, processing payments, managing housekeeping, and providing tools for reporting and analytics. The fresh funding comes just months after Mews secured…

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Following a five-fold growth since 2018, VC investment in Europe’s defence tech is set to hit a record year in 2024, as it’s on course to reach $1bn. According to a new Dealroom report, Europe is now at the heart of an investment surge, as governments turn to the defence tech sector to strengthen national security in response to escalating geopolitical instability. “As we face war on European soil for the first time in decades, the urgency to strengthen our security and build a modern defence software stack has never been greater,” said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director and head…This story continues at The Next Web

Following a five-fold growth since 2018, VC investment in Europe’s defence tech is set to hit a record year in 2024, as it’s on course to reach $1bn. According to a new Dealroom report, Europe is now at the heart of an investment surge, as governments turn to the defence tech sector to strengthen national security in response to escalating geopolitical instability. “As we face war on European soil for the first time in decades, the urgency to strengthen our security and build a modern defence software stack has never been greater,” said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director and head…

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Nebius today announced the launch of a new data centre in Paris — among the first in Europe to offer NVIDIA’s H200 Tensor Core GPUs. The company, which is the rebranded European arm of “Russia’s Google,” Yandex, is investing more than $1bn to build AI infrastructure across the continent by mid-2025.  “We work in a new industry which requires both deep technology and significant capital,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO and founder of Nebius, adding that the company’s data centre in Finland already provides the latest high-performance compute, tools and services to AI developers. “The addition of our new GPU cluster…This story continues at The Next Web

Nebius today announced the launch of a new data centre in Paris — among the first in Europe to offer NVIDIA’s H200 Tensor Core GPUs. The company, which is the rebranded European arm of “Russia’s Google,” Yandex, is investing more than $1bn to build AI infrastructure across the continent by mid-2025.  “We work in a new industry which requires both deep technology and significant capital,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO and founder of Nebius, adding that the company’s data centre in Finland already provides the latest high-performance compute, tools and services to AI developers. “The addition of our new GPU cluster…

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A new recreation of the Moon on Earth has sparked hopes of a “European renaissance” in space. Known as LUNA, the futuristic facility was inaugurated today in Cologne, Germany. The ceremony showcased several striking features, from a 700-square-metre replica of the lunar surface to a Sun simulator that mimics the Moon’s phases.  Also in the pipeline are a gravity offloading system and an adjustable ramp that simulates lunar slopes. Operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Agency, the site offers realistic conditions for spacetech R&D. Startups are already testing their tech on the site. Among them is Spartan…This story continues at The Next Web

A new recreation of the Moon on Earth has sparked hopes of a “European renaissance” in space. Known as LUNA, the futuristic facility was inaugurated today in Cologne, Germany. The ceremony showcased several striking features, from a 700-square-metre replica of the lunar surface to a Sun simulator that mimics the Moon’s phases.  Also in the pipeline are a gravity offloading system and an adjustable ramp that simulates lunar slopes. Operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Agency, the site offers realistic conditions for spacetech R&D. Startups are already testing their tech on the site. Among them is Spartan…

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Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about energy use at data centres, the state of Northvolt, submarine communications, and a few things in between. You will also hear an interview with Chiara Petrioli, CEO and founder of Wsense, a company that’s created what it calls the underwater Wi-Fi to help preserve cultural heritage, monitor critical infrastructure, and do a lot of other things.…This story continues at The Next Web

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about energy use at data centres, the state of Northvolt, submarine communications, and a few things in between. You will also hear an interview with Chiara Petrioli, CEO and founder of Wsense, a company that’s created what it calls the underwater Wi-Fi to help preserve cultural heritage, monitor critical infrastructure, and do a lot of other things.…

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As part of the EU’s drive to become the first climate-neutral region globally by 2050, it has championed a number of initiatives to encourage more sustainable business practices that contribute to this goal. Most recently in July the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) came into force to galvanise businesses in select sectors to actively support this aim.   Part of the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), the ESPR seeks to boost circularity and the practices that contribute to sustainability by creating a framework that helps make “sustainable products the new norm in the EU, by making them last longer,…This story continues at The Next Web

As part of the EU’s drive to become the first climate-neutral region globally by 2050, it has championed a number of initiatives to encourage more sustainable business practices that contribute to this goal. Most recently in July the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) came into force to galvanise businesses in select sectors to actively support this aim.   Part of the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), the ESPR seeks to boost circularity and the practices that contribute to sustainability by creating a framework that helps make “sustainable products the new norm in the EU, by making them last longer,…

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