Ali Niknam has built Dutch fintech Bunq into one of Europe’s biggest neobanks. But he fears the Netherlands is now driving entrepreneurs away. The Bunq founder and CEO is alarmed by the country’s business mindset. He believes risk-aversion, growing insularity, and hostility to ambition are pushing talent overseas. “Many of the best entrepreneurs I know have either left or are considering leaving,” Niknam tells TNW. Surveys back him up. A poll last year found that almost one in five Dutch entrepreneurs were considering relocating — up from nearly one in eight in 2023. Another study found that 24% of large…

This story continues at The Next Web

Europe has been turning uranium into energy for over half a century. In the process, the continent has amassed vast stockpiles of nuclear waste. This radioactive material can take millions of years to become safe, and no one really knows what to do with it. Thorizon, a Franco-Dutch startup, has an idea: reuse the nuclear waste to generate new energy. The company is developing a small modular molten salt reactor (MSR) that runs on a mix of spent nuclear fuel and thorium, a radioactive metal with untapped potential.  Thorizon aims to begin construction of its first reactor, Thorizon One, within…

This story continues at The Next Web

As Europe pushes for tech sovereignty, one open-source advocate has a warning: don’t forget global cooperation. Amanda Brock, CEO of industry group OpenUK, told TNW that the EU must “get real” about the trade-offs of going it alone. Brock said tech policymakers must move beyond “tit-for-tat schoolyard politics” and instead “protect global collaboration whilst ensuring the needs of their citizens are met.”   Her comments follow a speech by Eva Maydell in Brussels yesterday, where the Bulgarian lawmaker urged Europe to “sober up” in its quest for tech independence.   “We need to have a very clear outline plan which, first and foremost,…

This story continues at The Next Web

Google DeepMind’s AI systems have taken big scientific strides in recent years — from predicting the 3D structures of almost every known protein in the universe to forecasting weather more accurately than ever before.  The UK-based lab today unveiled its latest advancement: AlphaEvolve, an AI coding agent that makes large language models (LLMs) like Gemini better at solving complex computing and mathematical problems.  AlphaEvolve is powered by the same models that it’s trying to improve. Using Gemini, the agent proposes programs — written in code — that try to solve a given problem. It runs each code snippet through automated…

This story continues at The Next Web

Welsh startup Space Forge has raised $30mn to advance its first commercial in-orbit manufacturing satellite, ForgeStar-2. The NATO Innovation Fund led the funding round, the largest Series A financing in UK space tech history. Space Forge’s demonstrator — the ForgeStar-1 — is set to launch from the US on a SpaceX rocket this year. The oven-sized satellite will then harness the conditions of space to produce “supermaterials” that are impossible to make on Earth. Joshua Western, Space Forge’s CEO and co-founder, compared the technology to a sourdough starter — a small but potent base for growing something much bigger. “Our…

This story continues at The Next Web