DeepL just laid off 250 people. Cloudflare cut 20% of staff. Meanwhile, investors are pouring €178M into quantum computing and an AI agent just opened a café in Stockholm. Europe's tech ecosystem is in full contradiction mode—and the decisions made now will shape the continent's digital future for years.

In this episode, host Sébastien navigates the tension between European regulatory caution and the aggressive, high-stakes global AI race.

Key Questions Explored

1. Are European regulators helping or hurting AI competitiveness?
2. Is the quantum investment boom a sign of de-risked science or pure hype?
3. How does a continent that values safety compete with players building data centers in space?

This week on European It!, host Sébastien cuts through the noise to explore the fascinating tension between ambition and reality in European tech.

What’s inside:

• The Model Wars: GPT-5.5 tops benchmarks but fails real-world tests. Google’s aggressive play to steal ChatGPT users. Is the AI arms race decoupled from user value?
• The Mega-Deals: Legora’s €600M raise, Sereact’s $110M, and CMBlu’s unicorn status. Why B2B and industrial AI are Europe’s hidden strength.
• The Infrastructure Crisis: Meta is buying space-based solar. UK data centers are running out of water. The next war is over megawatts and liters.
• Regulation as Export: The rise of RegTech, the $292M hack that didn’t break the system, and why chasing grants might be a trap.

Tune in to discover:

• Is European tech building something durable?
• What’s the biggest risk nobody is talking about?
• Should startups stop chasing EU grants?

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• #EuropeanTech #AI #Podcast #Startups #DeepTech

This week on European It!, we dissect the biggest stories shaping the continent's digital future. We start with the massive $20B merger between Cohere and Aleph Alpha. Is this the shot in the arm European AI needed, or a sign that our champions can’t stand alone?

We then dive into the AI model wars with GPT-5.5, the €180M EU "Sovereign Cloud" contract, and the fascinating "Tokenmaxxing" debate—are we measuring productivity or just vanity?

Key Segments:

- The $20B deal that changes everything.

- The Mega-Merger: Breaking down the new transatlantic AI alliance.

- AI Model Wars: GPT-5.5, DeepSeek, and the cybersecurity threat.

- Sovereignty in Action: The EU's €180M cloud bet and Verda's €100M raise.

- The Startup Pulse: Rapid-fire funding rounds and exit signals.

- Deep Dive: Tokenmaxxing: Productivity metric or vanity trap?

- Forward Look: Europe's future as a digital powerhouse.

Links:

- Follow European It!

- Read the Newsletter

European tech, AI, digital sovereignty, startup funding, EU policy, podcast, European It!, Sébastien Deschamps, Cohere, Aleph Alpha, cloud computing, GPT-5.5.