The recently released EU Competitiveness Report from the European Commission delivered a stark message to the bloc’s tech sector. As Mario Draghi, lead author of the report, warned, Europe faces ‘’an existential challenge’’. “The problem is not that Europe lacks ideas or ambition,” the former Italian premier said. “But innovation is blocked at the next stage: we are failing to translate innovation into commercialisation.” Namely, the bloc needs to focus on providing the right conditions for more European big tech companies to grow — and the incentives for them to actually stay. As we get ready for CES Unveiled in…

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To the average eye, extended reality is starting to look bleak. The metaverse has bombed, the Apple Vision Pro has flopped, and Sony has all but abandoned the PSVR. Sadly for Mark Zuckerberg, consumers rarely want to strap computers to their faces. But there is one place where business is booming: the military. XR has diffused across the armed forces since 2021, when Microsoft signed a contract with the US Army worth up to $21.9bn (€19.6bn). Under the deal, the tech giant would develop training programmes for HoloLens-based headsets. Despite a shaky start — literally, for the nauseated soldiers —…

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Europe’s spacetech elite are making their final preparations for a groundbreaking meeting with an asteroid. A spacecraft called Hera — named after the Greek goddess of marriage — will make the rendezvous. The probe is slated for launch on October 7. If all goes well, Hera will then complete a detailed inspection of Dimorphos — a binary asteroid that’s also caught the eye of NASA. Back in 2022, the agency’s DART spacecraft deliberately smashed into Dimorphos. The collision contributed to a test of humanity’s planetary defences. NASA wants to prove that we could divert a giant space rock hurtling towards…

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AI startup Poolside has raised a whopping $500mn — and it still hasn’t even launched a product. Despite the barren release schedule, the company has become an investors’ darling. The new Series B round brings Poolside’s total funding to $626mn. Its valuation now stands at a cool $3bn. The cash magnet is a AI-powered coding. Poolside has developed its own language model, which promises to accelerate software development. The company also boasts two eye-catching co-founders. CEO Jason Warner helped create GitHub Copilot, while CTO Eiso Kant is a serial founder of AI startups. At Poolside, the pair are building three things:…

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Paris startup Poolside has raised a whopping $500mn — and it still hasn’t even launched a product. Despite the barren release schedule, the company has become an investors’ darling. The new Series B round brings Poolside’s total funding to $626mn. Its valuation now stands at a cool $3bn. The cash magnet is a AI-powered coding. Poolside has developed its own language model, which promises to accelerate software development. The company also boasts two eye-catching co-founders. CEO Jason Warner helped create GitHub Copilot, while CTO Eiso Kant is a serial founder of AI startups. At Poolside, the pair are building three things:…

This story continues at The Next Web