EU Eyes $47 Bln in Private Capital to Fund Deep-Tech Start-Ups

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 17, 2022. (Reuters)
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 17, 2022. (Reuters)
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EU Eyes $47 Bln in Private Capital to Fund Deep-Tech Start-Ups

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 17, 2022. (Reuters)
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 17, 2022. (Reuters)

The European Commission is planning measures to attract 45 billion euros ($47 billion) in private funding for "deep-tech" start-ups, those based on significant scientific or engineering advances, an EU policy document seen by Reuters showed.

A new Listings Act planned for later this year will also cut the cost of stock market flotations for the firms, the document, A New European Innovation Agenda, added.

The proposals, which the EU executive is expected to announce at a press conference on innovation at 1330 GMT on Tuesday, aim to help the 27-country bloc catch up with the United States, Japan and South Korea in cutting-edge technology, venture capital funding and innovative patents.

"Approximately 45 billion euros of funding for scale-ups could be mobilized by 2025 from untapped sources of private capital, and the cost of listing on public markets could also be reduced," the document said.

It said companies will find it easier and cheaper to list on the market under a Listings Act to be proposed in the second half of the year, part of the Commission's Capital Markets Union (CMU) Action Plan announced in 2020.

To allow founders to retain greater control post-listing, the act may also propose a harmonization of legal regimes related to dual class share structures across the EU, the paper said.

The Commission also proposed an innovation gender and diversity index, and will issue guidance in the first half of next year on so-called regulatory sandboxes that could include looser regulations for innovative projects.

Bloomberg first reported on the EU plans.



Meta Releases Open-Weight Muse Spark Model for Coding, Agentic Tasks

The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
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Meta Releases Open-Weight Muse Spark Model for Coding, Agentic Tasks

The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)
The logo of Meta is seen at the entrance of the company's temporary stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2025. (Reuters)

Meta ‌Platforms on Thursday released an open-weight version of its Muse Spark artificial intelligence model for coding and AI agents, expanding developers' ability to download and adapt the technology.

Open-weight models make trained parameters available for developers to modify, unlike proprietary models ‌that remain under ‌their creators' control. ‌They ⁠can offer businesses ⁠a lower-cost alternative to closed systems.

Meta said Muse Spark has 816 billion total parameters, with 42 billion active at a time, and ⁠can handle a context window ‌of up ‌to 1 million tokens.

The ‌model can run locally on ‌two Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studio computers and is also available through some API providers.

CEO ‌Mark Zuckerberg has argued that advanced AI should ⁠not be ⁠concentrated among a small number of companies.

While open-weight models can give companies greater control over their data, they can require significant computing resources and technical expertise to operate at scale.

In August, Meta released Muse Glimmer, a smaller open-weight model.


Taiwan Chip Giant TSMC Says Net Profit Hit Record in 3rd Quarter

FILE PHOTO: File Photo: The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at the company's second-quarter earnings conference in Taipei, Taiwan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: File Photo: The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at the company's second-quarter earnings conference in Taipei, Taiwan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo/File Photo
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Taiwan Chip Giant TSMC Says Net Profit Hit Record in 3rd Quarter

FILE PHOTO: File Photo: The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at the company's second-quarter earnings conference in Taipei, Taiwan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: File Photo: The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at the company's second-quarter earnings conference in Taipei, Taiwan, July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo/File Photo

Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said Thursday that net profit soared 68.7 percent to a record high in the third quarter, buoyed by massive global demand for AI hardware.

The result marked the sixth straight record quarterly net profit for the company, the world's biggest contract maker of microchips, including those used in Nvidia AI data center processors.

But with the AI boom only getting bigger, analysts warn that chipmakers and other tech firms reporting bumper financial results risk being "judged against perfection" by investors.

Meanwhile the company's planned expansion into the United States, including building chip plants in Arizona, is also likely to shape its future earnings.

TSMC's net profit for July to September surged year-on-year to NT$763.1 billion (US$23.6 billion), beating analyst estimates of NT$739.5 billion.

The result surpassed the company's previous quarterly record of NT$706.6 billion set in April-June 2026.

Quarterly revenue rose 50.9 percent to NT$1.5 trillion.

"Our business was supported by strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies," AFP quoted the company as saying in a statement.

Governments and tech giants are pouring eye-watering sums into building data centers that can train and run AI tools such as image generators and agents that can execute tasks.

But concerns about overstretched valuations have fueled fears of a market bubble, along with questions over when the massive investments into AI will reap returns.

TSMC's share price has ballooned nearly 60 percent this year, adding pressure on its earnings announcement as investors ask how long the good times can last.

TSMC builds chips for the likes of Nvidia, Apple, AMD and Broadcom -- meaning it "sits at the very center of the AI ecosystem", Zavier Wong, Market Analyst at eToro, told AFP ahead of the earnings announcement.

"Every leading AI chip still runs through its factories, so for investors, this week's results are about as close as it gets to a health check on the entire AI build-out."

Fears over AI's dangers have intensified in recent weeks, leading to calls for leading US labs to deliberately slow down their technological advancement.

"If the biggest buyers start to pace their spending, whether because of funding costs or AI labs slowing the development of new models, chipmakers would feel it quickly," Wong said.

TSMC is not the only chip giant enjoying the benefits of the AI boom.

Last week, South Korea's Samsung Electronics forecast a more than 780 percent leap in third-quarter operating profit from a year earlier.

But Samsung's shares still fell because its forecast missed expectations.

"Record profits have become the new normal, and Nvidia has lived with this for years, judged against perfection," Wong said.

Often "investors skip straight past the headline numbers and pick through the guidance and the fine print for any warning signs.”


Mexico Gives Social Networks One Month to Remove Violent Content

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily conference in Mexico City, Mexico, May 29, 2026. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily conference in Mexico City, Mexico, May 29, 2026. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo
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Mexico Gives Social Networks One Month to Remove Violent Content

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily conference in Mexico City, Mexico, May 29, 2026. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily conference in Mexico City, Mexico, May 29, 2026. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday ordered Meta, TikTok, X, Apple and Microsoft to remove content inciting violence on their social networks following a spate of deadly attacks in schools.

Sheinbaum gave the platforms a month to comply or face sanctions.

In the past two weeks, two people have been killed and several people injured in two separate school attacks.

The attacks have caused alarm in a country that lives in terror of brutal drug cartels but is a relative stranger to shootings or stabbings in schools.

On October 1, two teenage brothers armed with knives and fireworks killed a female assistant principal and injured three other people at a school in Coahuila state.

Then on Tuesday, a teacher was shot dead at a school in the southern state of Oaxaca, AFP reported.

Sheinbaum linked the violence to "behavior associated with communication on social media."

She said that if the tech companies did not "adjust their algorithms" to remove "all violent content linked to the accounts of children and adolescents," she would legislate to impose sanctions on them.

The decree issued by Sheinbaum on Wednesday orders social networks to prevent minors accessing "images and videos that lead to or encourage violence in a school setting," including "abuse, suicide, self-harm, cyberbullying and hate speech."

The networks must alert the authorities "if they identify content that endangers life."

In a discussion with TikTok and Instagram users, Sheinbaum denied that the new rules amounted to censorship.

"We're not banning social media," she said.