E719 | Europe Is Writing the Cheques. The System Still Doesn’t Work.

About this episode

The episode discusses Europe's challenges in executing its ambitions in AI, defence, and infrastructure amidst funding and procurement issues.

Europe wants to lead in AI, defence, and infrastructure. The question is whether it can actually execute. In this episode of Upside, Dan Bowyer ( SuperSeed ) and Lomax Ward ( Outsized Ventures ), joined by Andrew J Scott ( 7percent Ventures ), unpack a week where ambition and reality are starting to diverge. Mistral raises $830M to build sovereign AI infrastructure. Poolside’s $2B round collapses after losing compute access. And UK defence tech founders are leaving—not for lack of ideas, but for lack of contracts. Across all of this, one pattern emerges: Europe isn’t short on capability. It’s short on systems that work. Key topics: Why Europe’s capital problem starts earlier than growth Mistral’s infrastructure bet and what it signals Poolside, CoreWeave, and the fragility of compute access The UK defence tech bottleneck: funding vs procurement Palantir, trust, and the case for sovereign software If you’re building in AI, defence, or deep tech, this is where the constraints actually are. Timestamps 00:00 Intro and the week’s themes 03:00 News roundup: space, IPOs and market signals 08:00 Mistral’s $830M raise and sovereign AI infrastructure 15:00 Poolside, CoreWeave and compute…

People in this episode

Guests: Dan Bowyer, Lomax Ward, Andrew J Scott

Topics covered

• AI infrastructure
• defence technology
• European funding
• compute access
• sovereign software
• capital problems

Keywords

• Mistral
• Poolside
• UK defence tech
• AI
• infrastructure
• funding
• procurement
• sovereign software

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mistral, Poolside, CoreWeave, Palantir, NHS, UK defence tech

Places: Europe, UK

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