George Kikvadze

When I proposed that World Fund invest in a quantum computing startup back in late 2021, the link between climate and compute wasn’t obvious. It is now. Today, I am so proud of Jan Goetz and the entire IQM Quantum Computers team as they announce their $320 million Series B – the largest quantum raise ever outside the US. Too often, the narrative is that Europe is “behind.” This achievement proves otherwise. You can build a global leader out of Espoo and Munich in one of the most cutting-edge technology fields. You can become a global thought leader out of Europe, as Jan is doing. My hope is that this news sparks a stronger European narrative - and encourages us to be loud and proud about our successes. Back in 2022 we ended up leading IQM’s €128m Series A with me being on the board for the past three years. To see them now scaling globally, with a roadmap to fault-tolerant, error-corrected systems, is an extremely proud moment for me personally. So excited for what comes next for them! A warm welcome to Ten Eleven Ventures as the lead investor and Alex on the board - this is a major step towards our US expansion and global quantum dominance. A big congrats to our co-investors Tesi, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance, Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics Corporation, EIC - European Innovation Council, Bayern Kapital, Vsquared Ventures and more. Press coverage in the comments. More information on the link between climate and compute in our report on the subject which profiles IQM, linked here. https://lnkd.in/dYGcKb73 

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Quantum computing is no longer speculative—it’s becoming an investment priority. (The most comprehensive quantum startup map—V3) In 2023, European quantum startups outpaced North America, raising $781 million (three times the $240 million raised in the US). Globally, quantum startups raised $2.2 billion, a massive jump from $522 million in 2019. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Governments are fueling the momentum. The UK has committed $4.3 billion to quantum technologies, while Germany has pledged $3.7 billion. At the same time, VC interest is holding steady, even as funding dries up in other tech sectors.   Quantum technology will have a wide-reaching impact, from cybersecurity and financial modeling to drug discovery and materials science. Pharma will likely see the earliest impact (drug development and molecular simulations using quantum).   In 2022, Finnish startup Algorithmiq raised $4 million for quantum-powered drug discovery, while Paris-based Qubit Pharmaceuticals secured $17 million for molecular simulations. Another European company, Terra Quantum AG, based in Switzerland, raised $75 million to scale its quantum-as-a-service model, which has direct applications in pharma and beyond.   Big Tech is also all-in. Google, IBM, Intel Corporation, and NVIDIA are pouring resources into quantum hardware and software. Meanwhile, publicly traded quantum companies have seen their stocks surge, signaling growing institutional confidence.   At APEX Ventures, we invest in revolutionary quantum startups. We are partnered with kiutra, enabling the second quantum revolution with easy-to-use and sustainable cryogenics, and planqc, building quantum computers that store information in individual atoms.   For founders and investors, the question isn’t whether quantum will matter—it’s when. The trajectory is clear: capital is flowing, enterprise adoption is accelerating, and governments are fully committed. If AI dominated the last decade, quantum may own the next.   Huge thanks for the massive support on the last two posts and for your suggestions!   #Venturecapital #AI #Deeptech #Startups Follow us at APEX Ventures and subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content on groundbreaking Deep Tech startups: 🔗 https://t2m.io/EV2qHQuo

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Some big news after yesterday's announcement (let's hope Miliband realises we need cheap and abundant energy). NVIDIA Announces £2 Billion Investment in the United Kingdom AI Startup Ecosystem New Capital Supports U.K. AI Infrastructure and Startups to Spark New Industries · NVIDIA commits £2 billion to catalyze the U.K.’s AI startup ecosystem and accelerate the creation of new companies, jobs and globally transformative AI businesses. · Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton, Hoxton Ventures and Phoenix Court will join NVIDIA’s investment in the U.K. market, underscoring their commitment to foster the U.K. AI ecosystem. Scaling AI companies in the U.K. has been challenging due to limited access to supercomputing, constrained venture capital outside London, rising energy costs and difficulty for VCs to access leading academic institutions, where many researchers are also entrepreneurs. NVIDIA, in collaboration with Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton Capital, Hoxton Ventures and Phoenix Court, will accelerate the U.K. AI ecosystem by providing new capital for AI startups. “This is the age of AI — the big bang of a new industrial revolution,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “The United Kingdom is in a Goldilocks moment, where world-class universities, bold startups, leading researchers and cutting-edge supercomputing converge. There has never been a better time to invest in the U.K. — AI is unlocking new science and sparking entirely new industries. With new capital and advanced infrastructure, we are doubling down to empower the U.K. to lead the next wave of AI innovation.” “NVIDIA’s investment is a major vote of confidence in the U.K. both today and long into the future,” said U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. “By backing our startups, empowering our researchers and connecting capital with talent, this partnership will create jobs, spark new industries and ensure the U.K. remains at the forefront of global AI leadership.” NVIDIA is committed to working closely with the U.K.’s leading company founders and VCs — especially in London, home to world-renowned academic AI labs — and partnering with top U.K.-based funds to ensure capital and compute reach the most ambitious entrepreneurs and most dynamic regions, including the U.K. government’s newly announced AI growth zone. Following NVIDIA’s recent commitment to manufacturing up to a half-trillion dollars’ worth of AI supercomputers in America, the investment will be domiciled in the United States and activated in the United Kingdom, celebrating the transatlantic partnership between the two countries. NVIDIA is purposefully investing in the U.K.’s future, unlocking opportunities for the next generation of British innovators. “We are in the midst of a seismic technology shift as people and companies around the world increasingly depend on more intelligent hardware and software,” said James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital.

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On-Prem is the New Cloud: Why Enterprises are Reversing Stance in the Age of AI Remember when cloud was the battleground for innovation, agility, and scale? Everyone was tracking the % of on-prem compute moving to the cloud and it was growing every year? Well now there’s a reversal. The reality today? On-prem is the new cloud. Here’s why. AI’s Dark Side: Legal Risk and Data Governance Headaches Enterprises are excited about AI, but also uneasy as vendors like OpenAI face intensifying legal pressure. In a high-stakes lawsuit, a judge ordered OpenAI to preserve all ChatGPT chats (even deleted ones), overriding its 30-day deletion policy. Imagine that: you delete sensitive conversations, but they’re still sucked into legal limbo. The precedent is clear: AI prompts and outputs are discoverable records, demanding integration into enterprise ESI (Electronic Stored Information) policies. For large organizations handling sensitive data, the risk is simple: you can’t afford your AI tools to turn into legal liabilities. Especially when global regulations (GDPR, etc.) and internal governance collide with unpredictably broad discovery orders. Sovereignty, Control, Trust Many enterprises still ban ChatGPT or impose strict rules on usage. Even when allowed, token limits are throttled. Enterprises are cautiously letting AI in (as they should). Enterprises need to have control and trust. SAP is leaning into this with its Sovereign Cloud On-Site, deployable on customer premises with SAP-managed infrastructure. It is built to deliver data, operational, technical, and legal sovereignty in one package. Doubt it will be the last. Scaling Pains Talking to founders, three reasons stand out why cloud isn’t scaling with AI: 1/ The rate at which AWS/GCP lets you provision compute and the compute it wants you to provision both falter as AI and AI driven developers deploy a lot more code more frequently than before. So sometimes it’s not about data governance, but actually about performance and functionality. 2/ Shadow AI is rampant—employees paste sensitive info into models despite restrictions—creating demand for better permissioning tools. 3/ Data leakage remains a live risk, like the August 2025 Grok incident where hundreds of thousands of private chats became publicly accessible and indexed. One thing is for sure - founders selling into the enterprise are scaling faster if they offer the ability to run on-prem. The Future is Hybrid Don’t get me wrong - cloud is not going anywhere. But neither is on prem. A few years agoI thought we were headed for a full cloud shift, but now I think the future is truly hybrid.

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"OpenAI has signed about $1tn in deals this year for computing power to run its artificial intelligence models...the deals would give OpenAI access to more than 20 gigawatts of computing capacity, roughly equivalent to the power from 20 nuclear reactors, over the next decade." https://lnkd.in/eGirY8hc

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Europe is f*cking hype atm 🙌 In the past 2 days... 👉 Fyxer AI closes $30m Series B (Richard Hollingsworth, Archie Hollingsworth & Matthew Ffrench, well done my guys 😉 ) 👉 Born closes $15m Series A (Fabian Kamberi is a Project Europe Partner and 20VC OG) 👉 ElevenLabs hits $6.6bn valuation with $100m employee tender (Mati Staniszewski is a special special founder) 👉 Mistral AI raises $1.7bn led by ASML at €11.7bn post 👀 And they say great companies companies can't be built out of Europe 😉

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