Mission before money: how Europe's defence startups are luring AI talent
A sense of patriotism stirred by the war in Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump's upending of security alliances is a motivation for many, as well as the opportunity to make money as European governments boost military spending.
For others, it's the appeal of working on cutting-edge battlefield applications that use artificial intelligence.
Reuters spoke to two dozen AI engineers, venture capital firms, government officials and defence companies in Europe who said the influx of tech talent reflected a changed political landscape as the United States retreats from its post-World War Two role as guarantor of Europe's defences.
"There are people that are really mission-focused, and what they want to do in their life is to have an impact and not only earn a big salary," said Loïc Mougeolle, CEO of Paris-based battlefield AI provider Comand AI.
"They're really motivated to have an impact rebuilding Europe and change the course of history for Europe."
There are longstanding ethical concerns about the use of AI in battlefield contexts. But the technology appeals to investors: Comand AI raised $10 million in a December funding round, while Germany's Alpine Eagle, which focuses on technology to counter autonomous drones, raised 10 million euros ($11.4 million) in March.
Amid intense competition for AI talent, Mougeolle said Comand AI has recruited engineers and product managers from U.S.-based ChatGPT maker OpenAI and data analytics provider Palantir Technologies.
Alpine Eagle plans to hire across product, engineering, business development and sales as it looks to expand outside Germany. "Europe, in terms of defence and also public security, is a huge market," CEO Jan-Hendrik Boelens told Reuters.
Salaries in Europe can be significantly lower than in the United States: Glassdoor data shows Helsing - Europe's only defence "unicorn", valued at over $1 billion - pays up to $150,000 per year for an AI engineer, compared with $270,000 at Palantir or $380,000 at Google.
Helsing declined to comment for this story.
As well as poaching experienced talent, companies like Comand AI, Helsing and Alpine Eagle are recruiting new graduates.
Stelios Koroneos, founder of variene.ai, a Greek defence tech startup, said the war in Ukraine had reduced the stigma around workingin defence for many young engineers.
"Young people started realizing freedom does not come for free," Koroneos said. "You need to be able to defend yourselves. Some do it with guns and others do it with the knowledge they have and the things they build."
Julian Dierkes, a 27-year old doctoral student at Germany's RWTH Aachen University, researches reinforcement learning, which trains software to make autonomous decisions to achieve optimal results and has broad applications for defence.
"For me it is important if I do research in defence that I am protecting European democracies," he told Reuters.
STARTUPS SURGE
Defence startups have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and technology - particularly drones - has helped keep Kyiv in the fight.PitchBook data shows venture capital investment in European defence companies reached $626 million in 2024, up from $254 million in 2023 and $62 million in 2022.
And Europe's rearmament plans promise more: the European Union aims to mobilise 800 billion euros ($911 billion) for defence while countries like Germany have pledged massive increases in their defence budgets.
According to the Zeki State of AI Talent Report, European defence companies are targeting top engineers as even established firms shift focus from hardware to software for everything from drones to troop-tracking technology.
Its analysis, based on a dataset of 800,000 people, found the number of top AI engineers in Europe's defence sector based on published research soared to 1,700 in 2024 from 144 in 2014. Comparable U.S. roles grew to 6,927 from 487 over the same period, according to Zeki data.
Zeki defined top talent as engineers with a proven track record of breaking new ground in AI discovery such as published research.
"We believe this represents significant and sustained growth in the sector," Zeki's chief executive Tom Hurd told Reuters.
Investors, tech workers and recruiters said unease with the current U.S. political environment was prompting some Europeans to seek opportunities at home. Deep cuts to funding for universities and research bodies by Trump's administration have prompted scientists in other disciplines to consider moving to Europe.
"Many of the world's top AI researchers come from Europe. Some went to the U.S., but many are returning to work on European sovereignty, resilience, and long-term value creation,"said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director at U.S. venture capital firm General Catalyst in Berlin.
"I think that's a powerful signal."
MORE THAN MONEY
Benjamin Wolba last year co-founded the European Defense Tech Hub, which aims to connect tech founders, investors and policymakers and whose events have received sponsorship from Helsing and General Catalyst.
He said more than 12 defence tech startups had emerged from hackathons it organised in Munich, Copenhagen and Paris in 2024 that were attended by around 440 people. The privately-owned network hosted a similar event in Amsterdam last month.
"We're seeing growing anecdotal evidence that AI graduates are increasingly open to working in defence, especially over the past 12 months," Wolba said.
British university student Michael Rowley, 20, said he had recently rejected offers of accounting and more traditional AI jobs to work for a company developing technology that allows sensors to better track troop movements.
"When I decided to go into defence I had quite a few options, and for me it was the opportunity to do meaningful work," said Rowley, whose Tiresias startup won a tech event in Munich in February. "If I want to work for most tech companies I might write code for advertising, but to be able to contribute to the front lines and help protect democracy is an opportunity not many people get."
Marie Inuzuka worked at OpenAI and Palantir before joining Comand AI as a product manager in December last year, attracted by the opportunity to do "more mission-driven, impactful work".
The 34-year-old is a descendant of survivors of the 1945 U.S. bombing of Nagasaki.
"My grandparents lived through the atomic bomb, so defence has always been very close to my heart," she told Reuters.
($1 = 0.8786 euros)
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, Michael Kahn in Prague and Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris; Editing by Kenneth Li and Catherine Evans)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Nasa says it will lose about 20% of its workforce
Around 3,000 employees took part in the second round of Nasa's deferred resignation programme. (EPA Images pic) WASHINGTON : The US space agency Nasa will lose about 3,900 employees under Donald Trump's sweeping effort to trim the federal workforce – at the same time as the president prioritises plans for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. In an emailed statement, Nasa said around 3,000 employees took part in the second round of its deferred resignation programme, which closed late Friday. Combined with the 870 who joined the first round and regular staff departures, the agency's civil servant workforce is set to drop from more than 18,000 before Trump took office in January to roughly 14,000 – a more than 20% decrease. Those leaving Nasa on the deferred resignation programme will be placed on administrative leave until an agreed departure date. An agency spokesman said the figures could shift slightly in the coming weeks. 'Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organisation and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars,' the agency said. Earlier this year, the Trump administration's proposed Nasa budget put a return to the Moon and a journey to Mars front and centre, slashing science and climate programmes. The White House says it wants to focus on 'beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars.' China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US programme, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays. Nasa is still run by an acting administrator after the administration's initial pick to lead the agency, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman – endorsed by former Trump advisor Elon Musk – was ultimately rejected by the Republican president.
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump, EU chief to meet Sunday in push for trade deal
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she will meet Donald Trump and resolve a months-long transatlantic trade standoff. (AP pic) BRUSSELS : EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump said Friday they would meet in Scotland this weekend in a decisive push to resolve a months-long transatlantic trade standoff. In a drive to slash his country's trade deficits, Trump has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariff hikes if they do not hammer out a pact with Washington by Aug 1. The EU – which is facing an across-the-board levy of 30 per cent – has been pushing hard for a deal with Trump's administration while also planning retaliation should talks fall short. Von der Leyen first announced the meeting, writing on X: 'Following a good call with POTUS, we have agreed to meet in Scotland on Sunday to discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong.' Arriving on UK soil late Friday, Trump confirmed he would meet the head of the European Commission, which has been negotiating with Washington on behalf of the 27-nation bloc. 'I'll be meeting with the EU on Sunday, and we'll be working on a deal,' he told reporters as he touched down at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow. 'Ursula will be here – a highly respected woman. So we look forward to that,' Trump said. 'We'll see if we make a deal,' added the president, who reiterated earlier comments saying the chance of a deal was '50-50', with sticking points remaining on 'maybe 20 different things'. 'But we're meeting … with the European Union. And that would be, actually, the biggest deal of them all, if we make it,' he said. The high-level meeting follows months of negotiations between top EU and US trade officials and days of signals suggesting the sides were moving towards an agreement. According to multiple European diplomats, the agreement under consideration would involve a baseline 15% US levy on EU goods – the same level secured by Japan this week – and potential carve-outs for critical sectors. Von der Leyen's spokesperson Paula Pinho said 'intensive negotiations' had been taking place at a technical and political level in the run-up to Sunday's meeting. 'Leaders will now take stock and consider the scope for a balanced outcome that provides stability and predictability for businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic,' she said. 'In Trump's hands' Hit by multiple waves of tariffs since Trump reclaimed the White House, the EU is currently subject to a 25% levy on cars, 50% on steel and aluminium, and an across-the-board tariff of 10%, which Washington threatens to hike to 30% in a no-deal scenario. The EU wants to avoid sweeping tariffs inflicting further harm on the European economy – already suffering from sluggish growth – and damaging a trading relationship worth an annual €1.6 trillion (US$1.9 trillion) in goods and services. EU member states gave the European Commission a mandate to pursue a deal to avoid hefty US tariffs, with retaliation held out as a last resort if talks fail. Seeking to keep up the pressure in the final stretch of talks, EU states on Thursday backed a package of retaliation on US$109 billion (€93 billion) of US goods, including aircraft and cars – to kick in in stages from Aug 7 if there is no deal. Most states prefer a deal to no deal – even with undesirable levies of 15% – but exemptions are key, with aircraft, steel, lumber, pharmaceutical products and agricultural goods under discussion, diplomats said. Concerning steel, diplomats say a compromise could allow a certain quota to enter the US, with amounts beyond that taxed at 50%. Since launching its tariffs campaign, Trump's administration has so far unveiled just five agreements, including with Britain, Japan and the Philippines. While EU hopes have been rising for a deal, the approaching August 1 deadline also comes with a sense of deja-vu: earlier this month, EU officials also believed they were on the cusp of a deal before Trump hiked his tariff threat to 30%. 'The final decision is in the hands of President Trump,' an EU diplomat stressed this week.
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
European shares settle lower as investors gauge mixed earnings, EU-US trade progress
STOXX closed 0.2% lower as most regional bourses declined, yet still aimed for modest weekly progress. (EPA Images pic) BRUSSELS : European shares closed lower on Friday, as investors assessed mixed corporate earnings while awaiting updates on a framework of an EU-US trade deal that officials said could be reached as early as this weekend. Investors navigated the peaks and troughs around a potential agreement between the two large economies after a busy week of trade discussions with the US culminated in deals with Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped 0.6% to session lows after US President Donald Trump said there was less chance of an agreement with the EU but pared losses after EU diplomats reiterated that a deal of 15% duties on European goods was still in the works. The index last closed 0.2% lower with most regional bourses in red, but on a weekly basis, the STOXX index was on track for modest gains. 'It's hard to spin it as a good deal, but it would at least avoid much higher US tariffs and retaliation from the EU,' said Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief eurozone economist at Capital Economics. 'The reported deal with the US would take a major downside risk off the table for now, weakening the case for further interest rate cuts.' Also weighing on stocks were elevated bond yields that got a lift after the European Central Bank's comments on Thursday tempered expectations of imminent interest rate cuts. Meanwhile, corporate earnings were in full swing. Puma was the biggest percentage loser on the benchmark index, falling 16%, its largest daily drop in more than four months. The sportswear brand cut its full-year outlook and reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results. London-listed sports retailer JD Sports slipped 0.7% after Puma's results. On the flip side, LVMH gained 3.9% after the French luxury group reported quarterly results, with analysts pointing to hopes on the horizon as the group said it saw signs of recovery in the Chinese market. The broader luxury index rose 1.8% and was the top sectoral performer. Automobile stocks gained 1.4%, boosted by Volkswagen's 4.6% rise after the CEO of Europe's biggest carmaker said cost cuts must be accelerated in response to tariffs. Earlier in the session, shares took a hit on the company's slashed full-year sales and profit margin forecasts. Still, Traton, a truck unit of German automaker Volkswagen, fell 4.1%. Carrefour gained 5.5% after Europe's biggest food retailer reported its half-year results. Attention next week will turn to key events, including policy decisions from the Federal Reserve, earnings from several 'Magnificent Seven' companies, and Trump's Aug 1 tariff deadline.
