The UK's Moment
Europe's AI boom leads the week as funding accelerates, infrastructure dominates, and the UK's tech ecosystem posts its strongest first half since 2022.
NEWSLETTER | PODCAST | NEW MEDIA
Hey readers!
Welcome back to your regular tech digest — a quick snapshot of the most important recent tech news worth paying attention to.
This week, the UK quietly became the most interesting place in tech again — $17B raised in six months, four separate billion-dollar AI rounds, and a growing case that Europe’s AI story isn’t happening in Paris or Berlin. Meanwhile, new data just broke the “AI kills jobs” narrative wide open: the companies spending the most on AI are hiring the fastest, not the slowest.
This edition covers:
🗝️ Key trends: The UK is having a moment
📊 Graph of the week
🔍 Top tech news
💰 Startup funding highlights
👀 New VC funds
🎤 Must-watch interviews
and more… let’s dive in.
🗝️ Key trends: The UK is having a moment
The UK’s startup ecosystem has had its strongest start to the year since 2022, with startups raising $17B in the first half of ’26, up 102% from a year earlier. The standout trend is, of course, AI, which attracted $12.6B in funding, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all venture funding.
The UK has had its fair share of political challenges over the past few years, so this will be a positive moment for the region. What’s driving the trend?
Four companies, Isomorphic Labs, Nscale, Wayve and Ineffable Intelligence, each raised more than $1B, highlighting how investor capital continues to concentrate around frontier AI infrastructure and applications. Beyond foundation models, enterprise software, healthcare, semiconductors, quantum computing and robotics are attracting significant investment, while later-stage mega-rounds now account for the majority of venture capital deployed.
The UK also captured 39% of all European VC funding and 41% of Europe’s Deep Tech and Life Sciences investment in H1 2026, reinforcing its position as the continent’s leading innovation hub. At an estimated $1.7T (trillion) in enterprise value and with 217 unicorns, the UK’s technology ecosystem is increasingly defined by globally competitive AI and deep tech companies rather than consumer internet startups.
📊 Graph of the week: Heavy corporate AI spenders add staff faster than peers
Companies investing the most in AI are hiring more workers, according to new research that challenges the idea that AI will lead to widespread job losses. Over the two years after adopting generative AI, the biggest investors increased white-collar employment by 10.2%, with growth across all job functions and seniority levels. Entry-level hiring also rose by 12%.
By contrast, companies with lower levels of AI investment saw little to no change in headcount compared with similar businesses that had not adopted AI. The findings suggest that significant AI investment can drive productivity gains that support business expansion and hiring, rather than replacing workers.
A recent study analyzed nearly 22,000 US companies and is the first to combine company-level AI spending with employment data, providing one of the clearest pictures yet of how AI investment affects hiring.
🔍 Top tech news
In other news: Vibe coding tool Lovable is in talks to raise $300M at a $13.2B valuation.
Salesforce just announced that it will be deepening its commitment to Switzerland by investing $1B to accelerate agentic AI transformation.
30M US customers later and Klarna wants its own bank by applying for a U.S. banking license.
💰 Startup funding highlights
AI law startup Norm raised $120M Series C led by Khosla Ventures to build the future of agentic law.
Chip startup SambaNova raised $1B at an $11B valuation, as investors continue to double-down on the rising demand for infrastructure tied to AI.
Even Realities raised $150M to take on the smart glasses market.
Proxima Fusion raised $468M to build the world’s first nuclear fusion plant.
Quantum Systems raised $1.2B at an $8B valuation to transform decision-making processes through aerial data intelligence.
Jesse and Ben’s - restaurant-quality fries without seed oils raised $10M led by Greycroft.
Nexcade, which does real freight forwarding work with teams raised $6M led by Project A.
Twelve Labs, which develops artificial intelligence models and infrastructure for understanding, searching, and analyzing video content raised $100M Series A led by Naver Ventures and New Enterprise Associates.
Venice, which generates text, images, characters, and videos raised $65M led by Dragonfly.
Super.com raised $65M Series D led by TPG at a $1.2B valuation to scale the savings super app for everyday Americans.
👀 New VC funds
Ruya Ventures raised $50M Fund I focusing on European deep tech startups.
Chemistry Ventures is raising $500M for Fund II.
BAE Systems and the NATO Innovation Fund, closed a $225M second fund to develop sovereign military technologies in Europe.
🎤 This week on the NEW ECONOMIES Podcast Show
How Eventbrite survived the business apocalypse — and why the internet made real life more valuable than ever.
Husband and Wife duo Kevin and Julia Hartz, co-founders of Eventbrite, join us on the NEW ECONOMIES podcast show to share how they built one of the world’s largest event marketplaces, navigating a leadership transition after a decade as co-founders, surviving COVID when their entire industry (and revenue) shut down overnight, and why the future belongs to companies bringing people together.
Previous episodes include
Email Never Died | Rahul Vohra founder at Superhuman.
Replit’s President & Head of AI | Michele Catasta.
Inside Mercury’s Founding Story | Co-Founder & CEO Immad Akhund.
Inside Gusto’s Founding Story | Co-Founder & CTO Eddie Kim.
We Had to Reimagine Nextdoor | CEO & Co-Founder Nirav Tolia.
5 Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova: Tennis Icon | Entrepreneur | Investor | New Media Creator.
How Many $10 Billion Startups Will There Be? | Eric Hippeau.
Will AI Models Ever Compensate Creators? | Tony Stubblebine.
No More Traditional School Teachers | Joleen Liang.
Watch and subscribe now!
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