Europe wants to create more tech unicorns
It always seems that every other time you hear about a company achieving unicorn status, it is usually American. The EU is feeling the pressure to increase its presence in the world of tech. There are already plans underway to help boost the number of privately-owned European companies valued at mo...
EU should pay Intel 8 billion euros for two chip factories
This week it became clear that Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, has put a proposal on the table with the European Commission to build a chip factory in Europe. Gelsinger wants an 8 billion euro subsidy in exchange for the construction of one European chip factory. That's a nice offer to start with, but ...
EU to regulate high-risk AI apps, with fines of 4% of global revenue
According to a leaked draft of the artificial intelligence regulations envisioned by the European Union’s lawmakers, fines could reach up to 4%of global annual revenue (or €20 million if greater) for prohibited use-cases.
The regulation is expected to be delivered this week. The plan to regu...
Criticism of Irish privacy authority for slow GDPR action
Since the introduction of the GDPR, Ireland's Data Protection Commission has been swamped with work to enforce the regulations. However, due to the abundance of cases to investigate, privacy authorities are said to be too slow to act on violations.
With many tech giants deciding to locate their ...
Europe needs to invest 300 billion euro for 5G rollout
An industrial study says that the economic boost from 5G will not be without up-front costs.
Europe needs to pump 300 billion euros ($355 billion) into its telecoms infrastructure by 2025 if it wants to roll out super fast 5G across the 27-country bloc to boost economic growth and tap the potent...
Swedish data regulator fines police €250,000 for illegal use of Clearview AI
Sweden’s data protection (IMY) has fined the local police authority €250,000 (more than $300,000) for the unlawful use of Clearview AI, a controversial facial recognition software. The use of the software is in breach of the country’s Criminal Data Act.
As part of the enforcement, the poli...
‘EU countries to invest 50 billion in chip development’
Germany expects several European countries to pump EUR 50 billion into the chip industry within Europe over the next few years. This would be done on the basis of targeted aid.
This is what Reuters writes based on a statement from Germany. A total of 17 countries within the EU, including Germany...
The many IT challenges Joe Biden will face
As of Wednesday, 20 January 2021, Joe Biden is the new President of the United States. As Biden said in his inauguration speech, he has many problems to tackle. In this modern world, many of those problems are IT-related. What are the challenges facing Biden?
The main issue facing Biden is the t...
‘European companies victim of trade war between China and USA’
With China and the US increasingly excluding each other from trade, European companies are faced with the choice of taking sides or splitting up. American measures are increasingly blocking companies from trading with China.
This is what the European Chamber of Commerce in China and MERICS, a th...
‘Samsung wants to take Huawei’s place in European 5G market’
The Korean electronics giant Samsung seems to be planning to jump into the gap in the market opened by the measures taken against Huawei. Getting the costs right appears to be a major challenge.
Company executives have told Reuters that Samsung has been talking to Telefonica in Spain and Orange ...
MessageBird acquires Pusher for $35 million
After recently receiving a $3 billion valuation, after a Series C round in October, MessageBird has made a move to acquire the London-based real-time web tech company, Pusher. The acquisition price is $35 million, with Pusher co-founder and CEO Max Williams and the small Pusher team of 25 people jo...
Europe wants to work with new US administration on tech governance
The European Union said that it wants to work with the US on a common approach to govern tech and digital markets. Some of the proposed plans include the standardization of rules for technology applications like AI and ensuring that big tech is more responsible for their platforms.
EU lawmakers ...