European defence startups appeal to AI engineers
Conflict in Ukraine reduces stigma round defence trade
Increased European defence budgets ought to assist funding
Zeki talent database exhibits sustained development regardless of decrease pay
By Supantha Mukherjee, Michael Kahn, Elizabeth Howcroft
STOCKHOLM/PRAGUE/PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) – Some European tech employees who may as soon as have headed to america are defence startups nearer to house. Others are dashing again to Europe from jobs overseas.
A way of patriotism stirred by the conflict in Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump’s upending of safety alliances is a motivation for a lot of, in addition to the chance to generate income as European governments enhance navy spending.
For others, it is the attraction of engaged on cutting-edge battlefield purposes that use synthetic intelligence.
Reuters spoke to 2 dozen AI engineers, enterprise capital companies, authorities officers and defence firms in Europe who mentioned the inflow of tech talent mirrored a modified political panorama as america retreats from its post-World Conflict Two function as guarantor of Europe’s defences.
“There are folks that are actually mission-focused, and what they need to do of their life is to have an effect and never solely earn a giant wage,” mentioned Loïc Mougeolle, CEO of Paris-based battlefield AI supplier Comand AI.
“They’re actually motivated to have an effect rebuilding Europe and alter the course of historical past for Europe.” There are longstanding moral issues about the usage of AI in battlefield contexts. However the expertise appeals to traders: Comand AI raised $10 million in a December funding spherical, whereas Germany’s Alpine Eagle, which focuses on expertise to counter autonomous drones, raised 10 million euros ($11.4 million) in March.
Amid intense competitors for AI talent, Mougeolle mentioned Comand AI has recruited engineers and product managers from U.S.-based ChatGPT maker OpenAI and knowledge analytics supplier Palantir Applied sciences.
Alpine Eagle plans to rent throughout product, engineering, enterprise growth and gross sales because it seems to broaden outdoors Germany. “Europe, by way of defence and likewise public safety, is a large market,” CEO Jan-Hendrik Boelens instructed Reuters.
Salaries in Europe will be considerably decrease than in america: Glassdoor knowledge exhibits Helsing – Europe’s solely defence “unicorn”, valued at over $1 billion – pays as much as $150,000 per 12 months for an AI engineer, in contrast with $270,000 at Palantir or $380,000 at Google.
Helsing declined to remark for this story.
In addition to poaching skilled talent, firms like Comand AI, Helsing and Alpine Eagle are recruiting new graduates.
Stelios Koroneos, founding father of variene.ai, a Greek defence tech startup, mentioned the conflict in Ukraine had diminished the stigma round working in defence for a lot of younger engineers.
“Younger folks began realizing freedom doesn’t come free of charge,” Koroneos mentioned. “You want to have the ability to defend yourselves. Some do it with weapons and others do it with the data they’ve and the issues they construct.”
Julian Dierkes, a 27-year previous doctoral scholar at Germany’s RWTH Aachen College, researches reinforcement studying, which trains software program to make autonomous choices to attain optimum outcomes and has broad purposes for defence.
“For me it’s important if I do analysis in defence that I’m defending European democracies,” he instructed Reuters.
STARTUPS SURGE Defence startups have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and expertise – notably drones – has helped hold Kyiv within the combat. PitchBook knowledge exhibits enterprise capital funding in European defence firms reached $626 million in 2024, up from $254 million in 2023 and $62 million in 2022.
And Europe’s rearmament plans promise extra: the European Union goals to mobilise 800 billion euros ($911 billion) for defence whereas international locations like Germany have pledged large will increase of their defence budgets.
In line with the Zeki State of AI Talent Report, European defence firms are concentrating on high engineers as even established companies shift focus from {hardware} to software program for all the pieces from drones to troop-tracking expertise.
Its evaluation, based mostly on a dataset of 800,000 folks, discovered the variety of high AI engineers in Europe’s defence sector based mostly on revealed analysis soared to 1,700 in 2024 from 144 in 2014. Comparable U.S. roles grew to six,927 from 487 over the identical interval, in line with Zeki knowledge.
Zeki outlined high talent as engineers with a confirmed monitor report of breaking new floor in AI discovery resembling revealed analysis.
“We imagine this represents important and sustained development within the sector,” Zeki’s chief govt Tom Hurd instructed Reuters. Buyers, tech employees and recruiters mentioned unease with the present U.S. political surroundings was prompting some Europeans to hunt alternatives at house. Deep cuts to funding for universities and analysis our bodies by Trump’s administration have prompted scientists in different disciplines to contemplate shifting to Europe.
“Most of the world’s high AI researchers come from Europe. Some went to the U.S., however many are returning to work on European sovereignty, resilience, and long-term worth creation,” mentioned Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director at U.S. enterprise capital agency Normal Catalyst in Berlin.
“I believe that is a strong sign.”
Benjamin Wolba final 12 months co-founded the European Protection Tech Hub, which goals to attach tech founders, traders and policymakers and whose occasions have obtained sponsorship from Helsing and Normal Catalyst. He mentioned greater than 12 defence tech startups had emerged from hackathons it organised in Munich, Copenhagen and Paris in 2024 that had been attended by round 440 folks. The privately-owned community hosted the same occasion in Amsterdam final month.
“We’re seeing rising anecdotal proof that AI graduates are more and more open to working in defence, particularly over the previous 12 months,” Wolba mentioned.
British college scholar Michael Rowley, 20, mentioned he had lately rejected provides of accounting and extra conventional AI jobs to work for an organization growing expertise that enables sensors to raised monitor troop actions.
“Once I determined to enter defence I had fairly a number of choices, and for me it was the chance to do significant work,” mentioned Rowley, whose Tiresias startup gained a tech occasion in Munich in February. “If I need to work for many tech firms I would write code for promoting, however to have the ability to contribute to the entrance strains and assist shield democracy is a chance not many individuals get.”
Marie Inuzuka labored at OpenAI and Palantir before becoming a member of Comand AI as a product supervisor in December final 12 months, attracted by the chance to do “extra mission-driven, impactful work”.
The 34-year-old is a descendant of survivors of the 1945 U.S. bombing of Nagasaki.
“My grandparents lived by means of the atomic bomb, so defence has at all times been very near my coronary heart,” she instructed Reuters.
($1 = 0.8786 euros) (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, Michael Kahn in Prague and Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris; Modifying by Kenneth Li and Catherine Evans)
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