Latest news with #PrimaMateria
Sinar Daily
08-07-2025
- Business
- Sinar Daily
US$650 million Spotify share sale funds 'military AI,' activist slams CEO Ek
SHAH ALAM – Spotify's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel Ek is significantly increasing his investment in Europe's defence ambitions, leading a nearly US$700 million funding round into Helsing, an Artificial Intelligence-powered military tech start-up, as war escalations and geopolitical tensions fuel investor interest in the global arms race. The investment, led by Ek's venture firm Prima Materia, also drew support from prominent investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Saab and General Catalyst. This announcement comes at a time when global conflict, from Ukraine to the genocide in Gaza, has pushed military tech into the spotlight. - AFP file photo Helsing, founded in 2021 and operational in Germany, France and the UK, builds AI software to process battlefield data in real-time and recently expanded into drone manufacturing with its HX-2 model. The company states this new capital will be channelled towards strengthening Europe's technological sovereignty, particularly in critical areas like defence AI. "As Europe rapidly strengthens its defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical challenges, there is an urgent need for investments in advanced technologies that ensure its strategic autonomy and security readiness,' Ek said in a statement recently. This announcement comes at a time when global conflict, from Ukraine to the genocide in Gaza, has pushed military tech into the spotlight. However, the decision by Spotify's top executive to invest heavily in military AI has also reignited ethical concerns about the intersection of tech, warfare, and capitalism, especially in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza. Filmmaker and activist Sadia Hannan, known on social media as @naleybynature, voiced serious concern over Ek's investment in Helsing, drawing connections between tech funding and the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. "Something really disturbing is happening at Spotify and I want to talk about it. I used to work at Spotify when it was still a small start-up. "It was exciting back then, the platform was creating space for artists around the world. But the way it has grown has been violent and insidious," she said in a video uploaded to her Instagram. Hannan pointed out that Ek has sold nearly US$650 million worth of Spotify shares to fund what she called 'military AI', referring to Helsing. Her criticism extends beyond Ek, citing a UN report by Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese that named several global tech companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Palantir, as aiding Israel's military operations in Gaza. 'These tech companies are not just testing their toys on Palestinians. They're killing Palestinians. And what's even worse is that they're profiting off of it. "Military AI is big money. What we allow them to do to Palestinians is ultimately what we allow them to do to us," she said. She also added that Spotify's largest institutional shareholders, BlackRock and Vanguard, are among the biggest global backers of companies profiting from the arms industry, including those supporting Israel's military.
The Verge
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Deerhoof did not want its music ‘funding AI battle tech' — so it ditched Spotify
On Monday, the long-running indie rock band Deerhoof made an announcement: it was pulling its music from Spotify. The impetus was Spotify founder Daniel Ek's newest investment in Helsing, the German defense group that makes AI and drones. Helsing raised 600 million euros in its most recent funding round, which was led by Ek's venture capital firm Prima Materia. 'Helsing is benefiting from a surge of investment in defence groups, as a highly charged geopolitical environment spurs nations all over the world to increase military spending and the war in Ukraine triggers a rethink of battlefield technology,' the Financial Times wrote of the investment. Ek characterized the investment as 'doubling down'; he'd previously made Prima Materia's first investment in Helsing. That didn't sit right with the members of Deerhoof, who didn't like Spotify much to begin with. The streaming platform has been criticized by artists for not paying enough, as well as for its practices around 'ghost artists' and Discovery Mode. I called up Greg Saunier, Deerhoof's drummer, to talk about how streaming supports war efforts, how much money the band made from Spotify, and where they drew the moral line. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Let's start with how you made the decision. Your statement reads that you saw that Daniel Ek was using his Spotify money to invest in AI, and you objected to war profiteering. I think that refers to Ek's investment in Helsing. Can you sort of give me a picture of how that decision went after you heard the news? We were in a rented minivan, on tour in the Northeast, and so I think we were just making chitchat in the car. And I was just like, 'Hey, did you guys see that latest headline?' I think it took the four members of Deerhoof maybe all of two minutes to decide. Ed Rodriguez, our guitar player, did a quick look at our Spotify numbers. How much do each of us actually make a year from being on Spotify? As far as direct income, it was something small, like maybe $1,000 a year or something for each of us. 'The band's decision was very easy and quick.' So this is our cue. We've been basically waiting for at least five years for a moment. Everybody already hates Spotify — everyone you talk to, whether they're a musician or whether they're a listener. And so we were hoping that somebody would organize a movement. We'd be the first to sign up. But that wasn't particularly happening. And so just for our own ability to sleep at night, you know — regardless of whether it creates any movement, regardless of whether Spotify themselves care — we just for our own mental health did not want our music, and particularly our music success, to be funding AI battle tech. All of us have seen the results of what AI battle tech does and, you know, AI decision making, AI targeting, facial recognition, AI systems that are developed to go through lists of addresses where suspiciously named people happen to be living, and then will automatically obliterate an apartment building. [What's happening in] Gaza just gives everybody a taste of the future that Daniel Ek is trying to make possible for other regions of the globe as well. So yeah, the band's decision was very easy and quick. There seem to be two strands here. One is objections to Spotify, and the other is objections to AI, and so I'm going to take them separately. How did you first join Spotify? You were around well before the transition to digital music, and I'm sure you remember the Napster era, so I'm curious about how this has affected your careers. I actually don't remember joining it. We were probably on [record label] Polyvinyl at the time, and it was simply one of several ways to stream music. 'Daniel Ek is the type of oligarch — and there are several who are making headlines nowadays — who seems to almost have some psychological compulsion to put his foot in his mouth.' Napster, I think, is related to the history of Spotify. Because, you know, Spotify started in Sweden. And Sweden was also famous at that time for being the main hub for The Pirate Bay. But even downloading music for free, as with Napster, is — downloads are not streams. It's a different way of consuming music. At the time that Napster was happening, people had music collections. That's what I do. I buy MP3s, often from Bandcamp or classical music from iTunes. None of the members of Deerhoof have ever got a Spotify account because none of us like streaming — it never caught on for us. A narrative we can probably all agree is the case in terms of Spotify is that it seemed slightly suspicious when it started. It has utterly snowballed in terms of the amount of hate, the amount of eyerolls, and it's not only that there's been a gradual increase in public awareness of how unfair their payment system is. It's also that Daniel Ek is the type of oligarch — and there are several who are making headlines nowadays — who seems to almost have some psychological compulsion to put his foot in his mouth and make headlines by saying unbelievably stupid things that inspire the ire of musicians and music fans. He's just that type of very obnoxious. Not all billionaires are like that. Some keep their greed hidden behind some kind of secrecy or some kind of sense of decorum. Then you get the Elon Musks and the Daniel Eks and the Donald Trumps, who are more like intentionally, overtly, publicly as cartoonishly evil as possible. We felt in our gut that having our success be funding global annihilation was maybe one step too far. That's too much. We're not doing that. We're not on the side of a billionaire who has that as their objective. It's sort of like they forced us to take a side. We probably would have bumbled along for a while longer, just sort of waiting in the background to see if somebody else made a move. But that was just too much. I cannot stomach that. There's no way in the world I'm going to be saying, 'Hey, everybody, listen to our music!' while at the same time knowing what that would mean. Do you have advice for bands who want to remove their work from Spotify? You'd mentioned wanting to be part of a movement. If you happen to spur that movement, what should people do? I mean, I just did an Instagram post. I thought a few hundred of our followers would probably see it. I didn't anticipate the possibility that this could actually be a part of a story that could build into a movement. 'It was easy for us because we're making most of our income from touring.' I suddenly feel a lot of responsibility to people. It's like any form of refusal, any form of protest, any form of civil disobedience, any form of strike, boycott. What we're doing is basically going on strike — it's not really, because we don't have any intention of going back, but it's like a strike. We were the musicians, the laborers Spotify uses as their bait for their ad company. In any of these popular situations, the more people do it, the more effective it is. I already have had many of my music friends and colleagues tell me, 'Well, I can't really afford to leave Spotify.' I'm like, I don't judge you at all. I understand the situation. It was easy for us because we're making most of our income from touring. But that's a privileged position. I don't look down at somebody who doesn't feel that their own ability to to eat and pay rent will be so adversely affected by leaving Spotify that they just can't do it. At the same time, if a lot of people do it, then what happens is, Spotify goes the way of MySpace. You know, it's just not cool anymore. It's just not a trendy thing that everybody is compelled to use. That's the ultimate goal, to make it so stupid and so uncool and such a laughingstock that nobody even wants to use it. I want to talk a little bit about AI now. You made the announcement over Instagram, and Meta is also developing AI, and last year, okayed its use by the US military. So what's the hard line for you? I feel exactly the same about Meta or Instagram as I do about Spotify in that we hope for a mass defection. We hope for a mass strike, or a mass boycott, or just a mass refusal to use it anymore, and we will be the first to go. 'We would also very much enjoy disempowering Mark Zuckerberg.' But of course, there's a gray area. We're not literally directly making dollars from Instagram, but Instagram assists us in our ability to make income from other sources, such as ticket and record sales. I take some inspiration from, you know, worldwide boycott movements. I saw Cesar Chavez speak once in the late '80s. I remember people were asking, 'Why are you so focused on grapes? Why would you boycott an organic grape while there's these pesticide-covered apples that you're not even talking about?' And [Chavez] is like, 'It's just a strategy. It's about targeted action.' You see very much the same thing happening with BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions], particularly in the past couple years. There are many institutions and companies and individuals who have ties either to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu or Israel's government or the IDF [Israel Defense Force], but we're going to target these specific ones so that public consciousness can be focused. In a media environment that is perpetually oversaturated, it sometimes is strategic to focus one's efforts on a specific entity at a time, or not to overdo it. We would also very much enjoy disempowering Mark Zuckerberg. His particular fetishes and hobbies and fantasies of what he would like to do with his multibillion dollars is slightly different, perhaps, than Daniel Ek's, but it's obviously been clear, at least since the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Trump's first election, that that he both desires and succeeds at being involved in politics. Not to even mention his flirtation with possibly running for president. It's clear that he understands and gets a thrill from the fact that he's actually able to control world events somewhat by what he chooses to censor or shadow ban or what he chooses to teach his algorithms to promote to the top of any given person's feed. Yes, Deerhoof would like Instagram to also become uncool. I imagine that Instagram will go the way of any other platforms that don't really offer anything or create anything. What they create is loneliness, and they create what they require. They create longing, or they create distraction. They take you away from your own thoughts and your own feelings and obliterate your idle time in which you might have your own thoughts or feelings or create something, like writing a song. I don't believe that Instagram is compatible with survival in the long run. 'If it's a human right to have free recorded music, then it should be nationalized.' There's a generation — probably a couple generations now — who've grown up knowing nothing but free music, and they may feel that it's their human right. I actually can sympathize with somebody saying, 'I think I should have free music,' in which case I would say, 'Great, then obviously, if it's a human right to have free recorded music, then it should be nationalized. It should not be done for profit.' It's the same as we say about healthcare. It's the same as we say about housing. It's the same as we say about higher education. It's wild to be a touring band and be friends with French musicians. They're like, 'Oh, my salary is paid by taxes. My salary is paid by the government. I need to play 31 shows a year, and then I get paid.' In other words, the French population pays me to be a musician. [Ed. note: In France, musicians can collect a special class of unemployment income called intermittents du spectacle.] It's like, whoa, try imagining that happening here, how much that would change everything. Right now, the people who create recorded music do it for free, but any money that changes hands goes into the pockets of Daniel Ek. It goes into the pockets of somebody who uses it to automate and industrialize mass murder. That is not a scenario that most people are likely to give a thumbs up to if it's presented to them in that way. That's not Spotify's sales pitch but it should be because that's the reality, that's what you're signing up for. You just had a new album come out, Noble and Godlike in Ruin. Where can people find it? You can find it at the record store, you can find it on Bandcamp, you can find it on our website, you can find it on our label's website, and then there's any number of other tech platforms that allow for search fields in which you can type that. Or video platforms that will make it very easy for you to hear. Spotify seems like the only choice as the result of backroom deals between major labels. That made Spotify compulsory for everyone, regardless if you're Beyoncé. This doesn't mean that it's the only place to hear recorded music. Just go anywhere — literally anywhere — else.
Mint
21-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
From killer drones to robotaxis, sci-fi dreams are coming to life
The world is on fire, and that's giving some of the richest men the audacity of hope. Hope that their billions, brains and brashness can usher in a new world filled with robot cars, killer drones and solar power. In other words: hard tech. These sci-fi dreams—made popular by Elon Musk—have been building for some time. But they have become harder to ignore in the past month, with gambits from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey and Daniel Ek. They're all pouring money into efforts that a few years ago would have seemed like the stuff of science fiction but are now becoming very real. Their collective interest is giving hard tech a moment, not unlike the rush of investment and entrepreneurs to software with the debut of the iPhone and the rise of mobile computing. The enthusiasm for hard tech is fueled, in large part, by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. It holds the eventual promise of greater autonomy for physical machines and new advances in science. Today's hard-tech moment, which is intertwined with the AI boom, presents the opportunity to change entrenched industries: defense, transportation, energy production and more. And with that, possibly create new winners. This past week, for example, Ek, who created his fortune with streaming music service Spotify, turned his attention to drone technology. It's an area that has taken on greater attention after high-profile drone attacks were used by Ukraine in Russia and by Israel in Iran. Ek's investment firm, Prima Materia, led a 600 million euro fundraising round, equivalent to $691.4 million, for Helsing, a German defense-tech startup developing AI drones. 'There's an enormous realization that it's really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield," Ek told the Financial Times. Weeks earlier, the prospect of military application for another avant-garde hardware dream—extended-reality battlefield goggles—reunited Zuckerberg and Luckey, two billionaires who had a public break a few years earlier. Zuckerberg and Luckey's companies, Meta Platforms and defense-tech firm Anduril Industries, respectively, are teaming up to try to win a Pentagon contract for rugged headsets that could help soldiers on the battlefield. And Musk has said Tesla soon expects to begin public rides in the automaker's robotaxis in Austin, Texas. If the chief executive pulls it off, it could be a huge step in the company's pivot to robotics, which Musk has suggested could lead to humanoid robots outnumbering people. The imagination is seemingly the only limit amid the cocktail parties in San Francisco these days. Engineers talk giddily about how they see ways AI can aid in developing new lifesaving drugs and creating new materials that might be lighter and stronger for aerospace. It's a remarkable shift from a couple of years ago, when tech was seen as the problem—taking jobs, spreading hate, ruining the environment. Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who foresaw software 'eating the world," pushed back against cynicism in a lengthy 2023 essay titled 'The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." He argued that our societies are built on technology, which he called 'the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress and the realization of our potential." His firm, Andreessen Horowitz, launched an effort, dubbed 'American Dynamism," aimed at investing in founders involved in national interests, including aerospace, defense and manufacturing. The firm is a backer of such companies as Anduril, OpenAI and SpaceX. The effort comes as a new jingoism has emerged globally amid geopolitical tensions and renewed inward-facing domestic politics. Whether it is Ek investing in a European tech firm building drones for use in Ukraine against Russia or venture capitalist David Sacks leading the Trump administration's efforts to outpace China's AI development, new tech is suddenly the solution. Hardware, plus the huge cash requirements for complicated manufacturing, has long been seen as more risky for Sand Hill Road venture capitalists eager for a quick return on investment. In software development, moving fast and breaking things can work. In hardware, things often just break. On Wednesday, SpaceX's Starship spacecraft exploded into a giant fireball during a routine test, one of many setbacks as the company works to develop technology to travel to Mars. Still, Musk's other successes give entrepreneurs permission to dream big. This past week, Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was busy talking about his vision for a new personal AI device that could change how we interact with computers. His comments, made on his brother's podcast, came on the heels of OpenAI's data-center deal in the Middle East. The company also acquired Jony Ive's startup for $6.5 billion, part of an effort that tasks the former Apple design star with overseeing a consumer device to rival the iPhone. 'As OpenAI gets into a place of more resources and more potential, we can just do more things," Altman said. 'I would love to go build the Dyson sphere on the solar system and, like, you know, make the world's gigantic data center with the entire energy output of the sun."Building a Dyson sphere, a hypothetical structure that surrounds a star to capture its energy, might be a couple of decades off, he acknowledged. Still, on Earth, Altman is among those who are investing in ways to better capture solar energy as entrepreneurs look at the incredible demand for electricity in a future where cars, robots and AI data centers are all thirsty for juice. Hannan Happi's startup Exowatt is working to meet that need. He has seen the change in investor interest in hardware. Roughly a decade ago, he co-founded a drone company that was later sold to defense contractor Sierra Nevada. Then in 2023, he co-founded Exowatt, a solar company that aims to provide energy for AI data centers. 'I think investors this time around are less skittish about hardware aspects of our business," Happi told me. So far, he's raised $90 million. 'Every round we've raised has been oversubscribed," he said. 'We're just about to finish another fundraising event that we didn't even initiate—it just came together—and I think part of that is because we're riding the AI infrastructure wave." It's a good time to be working on hard things. Write to Tim Higgins at
CNBC
17-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Spotify's Daniel Ek leads $694 million investment in defense startup Helsing
European defense technology startup Helsing on Tuesday said that it's raised 600 million euros ($693.6 million) in a bumper new round of funding. The investment was led by Prima Materia, the venture capital firm founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and by Shakil Khan, an early investor in the popular music streaming app. Ek is also chairman of Helsing. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and Saab also put money in, alongside new investors BDT & MSD Partners. Defense and the technology behind it have become a hot area for investors lately, amid major global conflicts, including the Ukraine war to Israel-Gaza. Last week saw a further escalation of war in the Middle East as Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran. In 2024, venture funding in Europe's defense, security and resilience sector reached an all-time high of $5.2 billion, according to a recent report from the NATO Innovation Fund. The sector grew 30% in the past two years, outperforming the broader VC market, which saw a 45% decline over the same period. Founded in 2021, Helsing sells software that uses artificial intelligence technology to analyze large amounts of sensor and weapons system data from the battlefield to inform military decisions in real time. Last year, the startup also began manufacturing its own line of military drones, called HX-2. Helsing, which operates in the U.K., Germany and France, said it would use the fresh cash to invest in Europe's "technological sovereignty" — which refers to attempts to onshore the development and production of critical technologies, such as AI. 'As Europe rapidly strengthens its defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical challenges, there is an urgent need for investments in advanced technologies that ensure its strategic autonomy and security readiness," Ek said in a statement out Tuesday. Helsing did not disclose its new valuation following the latest financing round, which is subject to "certain approvals," according to a statement. The firm was previously valued at around 5 billion euros in a 450 million euro funding round led by General Catalyst last year.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German defence start-up Helsing raises 600 million euros in latest investment round
BERLIN (Reuters) -German defence start-up Helsing has raised 600 million euros ($693.30 million) in its latest investment round, lead by Spotify founder Daniel Ek, the firm said on Tuesday. The latest investment round has raised Helsing's value to $12 billion, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. This positions the start-up among the top five private tech companies in Europe, the FT added. The investment round was lead by Prima Materia, an investment company founded by Ek and Spotify investor Shakil Khan, which doubled its investment in the firm. Other investors included Lightspeed Ventures, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and SAAB, Helsing said in a statement. The Munich-based defence start-up, which specializes in AI software and is moving to produce its own drones, aircraft and submarines, hopes to benefit from governments ramping up defence spending amid rising geopolitical tensions. ($1 = 0.8654 euros) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
