Eurobyte: European technology news, explained
News analysis Cybersecurity
Europe took websites offline over PHP flaws; Foundation says warning signs emerged in 2024
Government, hospital and university websites across Europe were switched off as a precaution on 21 October while emergency fixes for two critical flaws in PHP were released. The PHP Foundation says warning signs of one bug appeared in 2024, but work on a repair stalled, raising questions about how the free software behind public services is maintained and funded.
· 5 min read
News Smartphones
Apple's first foldable iPhone goes on sale in Europe, at €2,300 and without Siri AI
The iPhone Duo reaches shops in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain today, with starting prices between €2,299 and €2,369 depending on the country. European buyers get all of the hardware, but not the rebuilt Siri assistant that Apple is withholding from the EU.
· 4 min read
Explainer Digital Markets Act
Siri AI still missing from EU iPhones as Apple and Brussels trade blame over the DMA
Four months after Apple unveiled Siri AI, the assistant has still not reached iPhones and iPads in the European Union, and the most recent statement from Apple that we could find, in June, said it had no timeline. Apple blames the Digital Markets Act, while the European Commission says holding the assistant back is Apple's own decision.
· 5 min read
News analysis AI infrastructure
Europe wants an AI industry of its own. Nvidia is offering to build the foundations
In Berlin, Jensen Huang offered faster routes to AI computing capacity. For Europe, the opportunity comes with a question about how much control a customer really gains.
· 2 min read
News analysis Semiconductors
ASML’s problem has changed: its customers want more machines than it plans to make
The Dutch equipment maker reported €11.7 billion in quarterly sales. Its warning about future supply shows how the AI boom reaches far beyond the companies building models.
· 2 min read
News analysis Photonics
The AI chip needs a connection. An Eindhoven startup is betting on the laser behind it
Photon Bridge has raised €10 million for optical interconnect technology. Its manufacturing timetable offers a useful measure of the distance between an AI investment thesis and a product.
· 2 min read
News analysis Legal technology
Legora’s $550 million round puts a high price on the promise of legal AI
The Stockholm-founded company is valued at $8.8 billion as it expands in the United States. The financing measures investor confidence; it does not yet show what legal work its software can safely take on.
· 2 min read
News analysis Energy and infrastructure
Fuse Energy is moving from selling power to reserving it for AI compute
The British energy supplier has opened reservations for Nvidia GPU capacity in planned UK data centres. Its 142 MW pipeline describes development ambition, while the first advertised capacity remains scheduled for December.
· 3 min read
News analysis Policy
The price of Europe’s cloud ambitions depends on what “sovereignty” means
An industry-funded estimate puts the cost of the EU’s proposed cloud and AI law as high as €115bn over a decade. That is a modelled exposure, not a forecast of a bill governments will pay.
· 2 min read
News analysis Voice AI
Mistral’s new voice agents can take a call. The harder question is what they should be allowed to do
Voxtral 3 connects speech, reasoning and actions. European hosting is part of its appeal, but deployment location answers only one of the questions facing a potential customer.
· 3 min read
News analysis Business software
Pigment raises $250 million to push business planning toward autonomy
The Paris-founded software company says it has passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its new financing backs a more ambitious claim: that AI agents can move from analysing plans to carrying them out.
· 3 min read