Dear all,

It was a sunny day in the spring of 1950 when Robert Schuman, then French Foreign Minister, met a small group in the quiet garden of a country house in Houjarray. Europe’s industrial heartlands — coal and steel in the Ruhr and Saar — had fueled both prosperity and devastation. 1870. 1914. 1939. France and Germany had fought three catastrophic wars in less than a century, each tied to the same industrial rivalry.

As they walked among the blossoming trees, a radical idea emerged: make war materially irrational by jointly governing the industries that enabled it. What seemed unrealistic became the European Coal and Steel Community — and later the European Union. It was Europe’s first modern moonshot: redesigning industrial value chains to secure peace through shared strength.

Today, Europe needs new moonshots to ensure competitiveness and technological sovereignty in a world that is becoming more volatile every week.

By combining the scale of Europe’s leading enterprises with the speed of its most promising deep tech scaleups — and aligning value chains around bold missions — Europe can shape the next decade rather than react to it.

Here is a starting point.

1. Ignite Europe’s First Fusion Power Plant

Objective: Bring Europe’s first commercial fusion power plant online in the early 2030s, combining plasma physics, superconducting magnets, and advanced materials to deliver abundant, low-cost, clean energy for AI, hydrogen, and Europe’s energy-intensive industries.

Typical players: Proxima Fusion, Marvel Fusion, Tokamak Energy, First Light Fusion, Renaissance Fusion, Siemens Energy, EDF, RWE

2. Achieve Industrial Quantum Advantage

Objective: Build Europe’s first fault-tolerant quantum platform by 2030, combining scalable qubits, cryogenic control, error correction, and hybrid HPC integration to unlock breakthroughs in chemistry, materials, and optimization.

Typical players: IQM, Pasqal, Alice & Bob, Riverlane, Quandela, BASF, BMW, Airbus

3. Build EURORA

Objective: Build sovereign European orbital infrastructure before 2030, combining reusable launchers, advanced satellites, in-orbit logistics and secure communication networks to ensure resilient connectivity and earth observation intelligence.

Typical players: Isar Aerospace, Reflex Aerospace, Exotrail, Eutelsat, SES, Airbus Defence & Space, OHB, Thales Alenia Space

4. Build the European SkyShield Dome

Objective: Deploy a European multi-layer defence system by 2030, combining ISR satellites, radar and RF sensing, AI sensor fusion and autonomous interception to protect critical infrastructure and industrial assets from drone and missile threats.

Typical players: Helsing, Quantum Systems, TEKEVER, ARX Robotics, Rheinmetall, Hensoldt, MBDA, Saab

5. Build the World’s Most Energy-Efficient AI Gigafactories in Europe

Objective: Build 10 AI gigafactories by 2030, achieving 3× lower energy cost per AI token through efficient AI chips, photonic interconnects, advanced cooling and integrated clean power.

Typical players: Axelera AI, Black Semiconductor, iPronics, EFFECT Photonics, SCINTIL Photonics, ASML, Schneider Electric, OVHcloud

6. Make Europe the New Materials Continent

Objective: Build a European alliance by the early 2030s, combining AI-driven materials discovery, automated labs, and industrial chemistry scale-up to create breakthrough materials for batteries, semiconductors, and energy systems.

Typical players: CuspAI, Dunia, Skeleton Technologies, VSParticle, BASF, Umicore, Solvay, Arkema

7. Deploy 1 Million Humanoid Robots

Objective: Deploy 1 million European humanoid and embodied-AI robots by the mid-2030s, combining world models, robotic hardware and advanced sensing to transform productivity across manufacturing, logistics and healthcare.

Typical players: NEURA Robotics, Agile Robots, ANYbotics, Wandercraft, ABB Robotics, KUKA, Universal Robots, Exotec

8. Build the Autonomous Logistics Continent

Objective: Connect Europe’s major industrial corridors by the early 2030s, combining next-generation batteries, autonomous driving stacks, sensor platforms and fleet orchestration software to reduce logistics costs and increase resilience.

Typical players: Northvolt, Verkor, ACC, Wayve, Oxa, Einride, Daimler Truck, Volvo Group

9. Make Europe the #1 Continent for AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Objective: Establish by 2030 a trusted framework combining multimodal biological data, foundation models, automated wet labs and clinical platforms to accelerate the discovery of personalised therapies.

Typical players: Owkin, Exscientia (merged into Recursion), BenevolentAI, Aqemia, Healx, Roche, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi

10. Build Europe’s Sovereign Semiconductor Stack

Objective: Build sovereign semiconductor capabilities by the early 2030s, combining photonic chips, chiplets, advanced packaging and lithography leadership to secure supply for AI, automotive and robotics industries.

Typical players: ASML, ASM International, BESI, Soitec, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Black Semiconductor, Axelera AI

These missions are just a starting point. They are not ambitious enough yet.

Can you help take them to the next level? And: which mission is missing?

Write to [email protected]. If you are pursuing a bold idea, we may allocate one of the very last remaining spots on our stages of Deep Tech Momentum 2026 in Berlin this May — an opportunity to present your moonshot to a pan-European audience.

In hope of having enough courage to launch European moonshots together,
Martin

Europe’s deep tech narrative is quietly crossing a threshold — from promise to power.

The newly released 2026 European Deep Tech Report by Lakestar, Walden Catalyst, Dealroom makes this shift quantifiable: capital is consolidating, geopolitical demand is accelerating, and the sector is proving structurally more resilient than the rest of the venture.

Here are five key takeaways:

→ Exotec was France’s first industry-tech unicorn

→ Verity’s drones operate fully autonomously in GPS-denied warehouses at night—meaning some of the world’s largest logistics hubs are already run, in part, by machines after humans leave

→ Originally inspired by snake locomotion, Eelume’s robot can remain permanently deployed in the subsea for months—effectively turning underwater infrastructure into continuously monitored, autonomous systems.

We've said it before — but every day it gets more real.

Deep Tech Momentum 2026 returns this May in Berlin.

Beyond the highly-curated matchmaking sessions designed to fast-track purchase orders, POCs, and funding rounds, DTM26 will bring Europe's most innovative builders, backers, and buyers on stage, including:

Unicorn and Scaleup Founders

Leading Corporate Innovation Leaders

Tier-1 Investors

The room will be full. The conversations will compound. And the people shaping the next decade of European industry will be there.

Event Details:

→ Secure your ticket now.

DTM is partnering with Mashup — a community-first, curated ecosystem with Nordic flair — for a dedicated Robotics & Physical AI track. Born as an anti-conference by a mix of founders and VC professionals, Mashup is bullish on Europe and the Nordics as the home of the companies that will define the future.

2 days. 500 VCs, founders, angels, and LPs. An invite-only experience giving you access to the best people in the new Nordics ecosystem. The Robotics & Physical AI day is driven by Jan Erik Solem (Stær) and Sid Khullar (Aris Machina), with Headline, Atomico, IKEA, Hitachi, NVIDIA and more in the room.

What to expect:

Zero filler. Real deployment conversations. Spots are limited.

Event Details:

→ Use code DTMMASHUP20 and register here.

Every founder thinks they understand fundraising — until they’re in it.

What usually comes as fragmented advice, delayed feedback, or expensive learning cycles is being compressed into one room in the Fundraising Masterclass by PXR.

A small, highly selective group of founders will get something rare: aligned, unfiltered perspectives across the entire fundraising stack — from how VCs actually decide, to how momentum is engineered, to what really happens when the term sheet lands.

The Fundraising Masterclass brings together:

This is not a panel. It’s a closed, hands-on working session designed for founders actively preparing a round or already in-market (Seed to Series B).

Event Details:

The event is already oversubscribed. BUT: 

➔ We’re giving away two spots to hop onto this Masterclass. If you’re gearing up for a round in the next few months, this is one of the highest-leverage rooms you can get into right now. Just reply to this email with “PXR-fundraising” and win your spot. Good Luck!

Last Week’s Winner: Congratulations to Florian Engel and Adeline Koay on getting free tickets to DTM26 in Berlin!