A 7,000-year-old village may have practiced a haunting skull ritual that left bodies behindMistral AI is reportedly in early talks to raise around €3 billion, in a move which could value the French start-up at roughly €20 billion.
Sources told Bloomberg the terms of the proposed raise may still change, and the valuation could also move higher depending on investor demand.
The rumoured round would strengthen Mistral AI’s position as Europe’s main AI challenger by providing the company with more capital as AI players face rising costs for computing power, infrastructure and talent across the globe.
It would also mark a sharp jump from the €11.7 billion valuation Mistral AI secured in September 2025 when Dutch chipmaker ASML became the largest shareholder in the start-up with an 11% stake after leading a €1.7 billion Series C funding round.
The start-up has positioned itself as a sovereign alternative to US and Chinese AI players, targeting European governments and companies with plans to build out cloud computing facilities in France and Sweden.
Mistral AI recently also moved to target industrial customers including Airbus and BMW for services covering engineering and manufacturing.
The French player acquired Austrian start-up Emmi AI last month as part of efforts to expand its services to industrial customers in Europe.
However, the company still trails larger rivals as its models and chatbot have still not matched the adoption of offerings from US players OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Chinese competitors.
Last month, Anthropic raised $65 billion in a funding round valuing it at $965 billion, eclipsing OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation following its latest funding round in March.
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The GSMA cautioned European regulations must be aligned to enable the infrastructure investments needed for the mobile industry to maintain steady growth in an already substantial contribution to GDP.
In a statement promoting the release of GSMA Intelligence’s latest regional Mobile Economy report issued ahead of the pending presidency of the European Union (EU) by the Republic of Ireland, the association reiterated concerns over network quality, 5G penetration and a gap in the funding required.
GSMA director general Vivek Badrinath noted the decisions taken during the six-month presidency and beyond “will ultimately determine how well we bolster the foundational role mobile technologies play in modern society”.
Improved mobile capabilities would also help determine “how well-equipped Europe’s digital ecosystem is to grow and compete with leading global markets”, he said.
GSMA Intelligence’s research indicates the mobile sector contributed €1.2 trillion to the EU’s GDP in 2025, up from €1 trillion in 2024.
It forecast the sum could reach €1.6 trillion in 2030, 8.2% of overall GDP compared with 6.1% in 2025.
The industry accounted for 1.3 million direct and 1.1 million indirect jobs at end-2025.
But the GSMA reiterated 5G accounted for 43% of mobile connections at end-2025 and highlighted a potential €270 billion shortfall in future funding needs.
Backing
Politicians and lobbyists said they recognise the importance of mobile connectivity to the Republic of Ireland and Europe as a whole.
The nation’s Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said creating conditions which “allow Europe’s digital ecosystem to truly thrive is a high agenda item” during its EU presidency.
He highlighted the importance of getting politicians and industry players together to “ensure opportunities are not missed to drive European competitiveness and growth”.
Nicola Cooke, director of lobby group Ibec’s Telecommunications Industry Ireland, noted the sector is at “an important crossroads” due to pending digital networks and cybersecurity legislation, and vowed to step up efforts to advance investment “in this vital national infrastructure”.
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Telecom Italia (TIM) received a €1 billion payment from the Italian state, refunding a charge from the late 90s the operator has been battling through the courts for years to get back.
The operator paid just over €500 million in a licence fee in 1998 and has been contesting that payment for over 20 years. The final sum awarded to the operator comprises the original amount with inflation and interest added.
In December 2025, the country’s Court of Cassation finally ended a long-running legal row, ratifying a decision made in 2024 to award the sum.
Telecom Italia noted the payment had been flagged in its accounts last year and will “have a net positive impact on the financial position for the current financial year”.
The payment draws a line under what has been a lengthy battle for the operator to get a refund on a fee paid in the wake of the Italian telecoms market being opened-up.
In a statement made in 2024 on the issue, TIM argued courts in Europe had “intervened on this issue on several occasions” with a court in Rome eventually ruling in its favour.
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© The New York Times
Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of amphicyonid -- the extinct family of carnivorous mammals popularly known as bear-dogs -- from two specimens unearthed at a rich fossil site in the Vallès-Penedès Basin near Barcelona, Spain.
The post New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
MILAN — Etlaq Spaceport, Oman’s commercial spaceport, and German-based small launch provider HyImpulse have signed a letter of intent to explore future launch-related activities and a potential operational presence in […]
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Standards body ETSI proclaimed European digital identity infrastructure as being on the brink of a major transformation due to the release of its first specifications for a regional virtual ID set-up.
ETSI stated 450 million European Union (EU) citizens stand to benefit from the standards for the European Digital Identity Wallet programme, an initiative ultimately intended to act as identity verification and a means of securely sharing a variety of details about a person and their qualifications.
There are more than 24 specifications in ETSI’s first release for the programme and the body stated its technical groups would work on more over the next 18 months.
“Our goal is to make digital interactions across Europe as easy and trustworthy as possible,” Nick Pope, chair of ETSI’s Electronic Signatures and trust infrastructures committee said.
He explained ETSI has a “long expertise in electronic signatures, cybersecurity and trust data management”.
ETSI explained the EU is working to simplify access to online services by enabling single sign-on in place of multiple passwords. People will be able to “store and manage official digital documents, share verified information such as diplomas or licenses and sign documents with legally binding electronic signatures”.
As such, it’s initial batch of standards cover attestation profiles, policies for certification and so-called “trust list formats”.
Protocols for remote signatures, proving identity and data storage are also included.
The EU hopes the digital wallet system will simplify access to government services, healthcare, banking, travel and education.
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The extinct Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and today’s African and Asian lions (Panthera leo) belong to separate evolutionary lineages that diverged roughly 1.7 million years ago -- far earlier than previously thought, according to an analysis of 12 cave lion genomes spanning more than 100,000 years.
The post Study: Cave Lions were Distinct Species that Occasionally Bred with Ancestors of Today’s Lions appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Satellites have become essential infrastructure. Financial markets rely on their timing signals. Military operations depend on their communications and surveillance. Navigation, disaster response, logistics, climate monitoring, most systems that underpin […]
The post After the launch: Why Europe’s space ambitions depend on what comes next appeared first on SpaceNews.
Vodafone Greece commenced early-stage talks about going Dutch on a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) venture with utility PPC Group, a combination with the potential to pass almost 2.5 million homes.
The head of terms discussion over the 50:50 joint venture also involves the companies’ respective wholesale fibre operations. Vodafone explained any combined business would provide open access to ISPs.
PPC stated the FTTH network of the subsidiary in line for the combination currently passes 1.9 million households and Vodafone’s 550,000.
Alexandros Paterakis, vice chair of the PPC FiberGrid unit and deputy CEO for digital services at the group, said any tie-up would create a “leading digital network infrastructure in Greece”, along with advancing various of the company’s strategic goals.
For Vodafone, any agreement would “substantially accelerate the development of our fibre network” CEO Achilleas Kanaris said.
He added Greece is strategically important to Vodafone Group as a whole and explained the unit is focused on expanding its footprint, shifting from “copper to fibre” and contributing to “national digital coverage objectives”.
The companies emphasised no binding commitments had been made and they are yet to embark on due diligence processes, though indicated intentions to do so with a view to signing binding agreements.
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New radiocarbon dates from Sala Keimada, a hard-to-reach chamber of Cueva Palomera in the province of Burgos, northern Spain, suggest that generations of people returned to the sacred space from the end of the Ice Age through the Iron Age, leaving behind art, structures and offerings.
The post Spanish Cave Sanctuary Reveals More Than 11,500 Years of Activity appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Denmark has provisionally approved Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (Supervised) system, making it the fourth European country to clear the software in roughly eight weeks.
The Danish Road Traffic Authority, Færdselsstyrelsen, confirmed the decision today — notably after Denmark had previously raised concerns about the technology at the EU level.
SK Telecom declared itself the first private company based in Asia to be picked to contribute to European Union (EU) work to develop next-generation quantum cryptography technology to boost the security of communications.
The South Korean operator was picked to help develop a quantum key distribution (QKD) system using Quantum Photonic Integrated Circuit-AI as part of the EU’s €95.5 billion Horizon Europe science and technology research financing programme.
SKT staff are to work with researchers in Greece, Austria and Germany, focusing on reducing the bulk, weight and cost of QKD equipment.
The theory is access to QKD-based security would be boosted if the equipment is easier to deploy: SKT stated current systems are unwieldy because “precision optical components…must be individually assembled and aligned in the form of discrete equipment”.
SKT believes optical elements can be combined into a single chip using Photonic Integrated Circuit semiconductor process technology, an approach it likened to producing smartphone camera modules.
The operator expects real-time optical calibration to be possible by embedding AI into the system to boost “overall QKD system stability”.
Project coordination is to be handled by the National Centre of Scientific Research Demokritos in Greece, which is also tasked with developing the AI.
The Austrian Institute of Technology is to develop the key management system and German semiconductor start-up Synogate the functional logic.
SKT highlighted a side mission to help harmonise European and South Korean quantum cryptography standards by identifying differences in respective current approaches. The work could ultimately help develop a global approach, it stated.
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The Chinese company MizarVision recently gained attention with its open source Earth observation data analysis over the Middle East which showed images of F-35s gathering 24 hours before Operation Epic […]
The post Let’s procure in-orbit services like Earth observation data and services appeared first on SpaceNews.
The UK government gave technology companies three months to switch on device-level tools blocking children from taking, sending or viewing nude images, warning action will be taken if they fail to do so.
The UK Home Office said companies including Apple and Google must implement built-in protections across smartphones and tablets used by children in a move it claimed would make Britain “the first country in the world where it is impossible for children to take, share or view naked pictures on their devices”
If tech companies do not act within the deadline, the government plans to enforce legislation mandating the activation of the technology. Proposed penalties could include fines, with criminal liability for tech bosses under consideration “as a last resort”.
On privacy, the government framed the proposal as on-device blocking, stating there would be “no data collection, no monitoring and no reporting”. Users over the age of 18 would still be able to access adult content by providing proof of age.
The initiative aims to stop predators from exploiting underage victims through their devices and limiting children’s access to pornography. The Home Office noted 91% of online child sexual abuse reports recorded in 2024 contained self-generated content, adding children as young as five were being groomed or coerced into creating explicit images.
Speaking at London Tech Week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer (pictured) said the industry must address the issue as a matter of urgency. “If we are serious about unlocking the opportunities that tech can bring, then we must also be serious about preventing our children from those who look to abuse it – the online predators,” he explained, arguing technology should “adapt to the needs of society, not the other way round”.
Starmer warned if technology players “choose not, then we will act and we will change the law”.
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© Jes Aznar for The New York Times
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