The Scaleup Europe Fund sits between commercial returns and European industrial strategy. Its investments therefore face a question beyond whether a company can succeed: what does the fund enable that would otherwise be smaller, slower or less anchored in Europe? Early investments such as EUCLYD make that test concrete, without yet settling the answer.
Six questions connect investment selection with the additional capital, strategic capability and European influence the fund should deliver.
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Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone are exploring a joint bid for European mobile satellite spectrum. The initiative could extend coverage and strengthen Europe’s negotiating position in direct-to-device connectivity. But the operators plan to establish key ground infrastructure while sourcing satellites from a separate partner—leaving unresolved where operational control will ultimately sit.
Spectrum rights could strengthen Europe’s position. Turning those rights into reliable, accessible services requires a broader agreement on capacity, competition and control.
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Nvidia’s planned investments in four German startups put a sharper question behind Europe’s industrial AI ambitions: who controls the foundations of future growth? Announced alongside a German government partnership on physical AI, the investments could strengthen European companies while deepening their reliance on an American supplier of computing infrastructure, development tools and models.
The strategic test extends beyond where companies are headquartered. It concerns their ability to develop, operate and change technology on their own terms.
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Europe has more stories to tell. Through experimental writing, Altair Media explores the connections between culture, entrepreneurship, technology and capital — and introduces a new briefing for readers curious about the Europe taking shape around them.
Europe’s old pilgrimage routes preserve more than religious heritage. They offer another relationship with time. Through walking, hospitality and unexpected encounters, they reveal what modern societies risk losing when every journey — and even rest — must deliver measurable results.
Years after leaving telecom journalism, Siu Lie Tan reappears in Tuscany—working across circular innovation, European regulation and natural cosmetics. In this Coffee Talk, she reflects on curiosity, changing direction and learning that not everything needs to follow the plan.
Michiel Scheffer wants Europe to do more than finance scientific discovery. His vision for the European Innovation Council connects research, patient capital, industrial demand and strategic procurement—turning breakthrough technologies into companies, production capacity and European power.