The European AI Index 2026: Europe's Largest Private AI Companies

Quick answer: Europe's 15 largest private AI companies are worth a combined $123.7 billion as of 7 October 2026. Mistral AI (Paris) leads at more than $23.66 billion, followed by Helsing (Munich, defence AI) at $18 billion and Nscale (London, AI infrastructure) at about $14.6 billion. Together the top 15 equal 14.5 percent of OpenAI alone.

Updated 7 October 2026: Every row was re-verified against company announcements, lead investors, tier-one reporting and company registries. The index now requires both the legal top entity and the declared headquarters to be in Europe, counts AI infrastructure, and uses only confirmed, closed primary rounds, with euro figures converted at the ECB rate of 6 October 2026 (1 EUR = 1.1269 USD). Nine companies were added and five removed: Recursive Superintelligence (its equity sits in a US company, and its $4.0 billion was a pre-money figure), Wonderful (incorporated in Israel), Multiverse Computing (its round is still open), and Owkin and Tractable (Delaware parents). Harmattan AI's valuation was corrected to $1.4 billion. The US comparison was rebuilt from current sources. Each correction is logged on the corrections page. First published 14 May 2026.

Each company row links its sources and names its legal entity, and notes where a figure is stale, unconfirmed by the company or not stated as pre- or post-money. Check the dated rows, sources and caveats before citing. Downloads are CC BY 4.0.

For the sortable, filterable version, see the companion page: The European AI Index 2026.

Key Takeaways

Headline numbers

• $123.7 billion combined valuation of Europe's top 15 private AI companies
• $852 billion OpenAI's valuation in its March 2026 round (CNBC)
• 14.5 percent Europe's top 15 as a share of OpenAI alone
• 6.9 times OpenAI's valuation as a multiple of Europe's entire top 15 combined

Country leaders

• Germany: $39.6 billion combined across 5 companies (Helsing, Quantum Systems, NEURA Robotics, Stark Defence, Parloa)
• United Kingdom: $38.2 billion combined across 6 companies (Nscale, Wayve, Ineffable Intelligence, Synthesia, OLIX, CuspAI)
• France: $28.2 billion combined across 2 companies (Mistral AI, AMI Labs)

Category split

• Defence AI: $47.3 billion across 5 companies (Helsing, ICEYE, Quantum Systems, Tekever, Stark Defence), the largest category
• Foundation models and world models: $33.3 billion across 3 companies (Mistral AI, Ineffable Intelligence, AMI Labs)
• AI infrastructure: $17.9 billion across 2 companies (Nscale, OLIX)
• Autonomous driving: $8.6 billion (Wayve)

Capital concentration

• Top 3 (Mistral AI, Helsing, Nscale) account for 45.5 percent of the top 15's combined valuation
• Top 5 account for 61.6 percent

Vintage and momentum

• 2024 is the most common founding year among the top 15 (Nscale, Stark Defence, OLIX, CuspAI)
• Six of the top 15 were founded in 2024 or 2025: Nscale, Stark Defence, OLIX, CuspAI, Ineffable Intelligence and AMI Labs
• Defence AI accounts for 5 of the 15 companies; in the May edition it accounted for 4

Table of contents

1. The top 15
2. The gap with the US
3. Country breakdown
4. Category breakdown
5. Operationally European, legally American
6. Why Europe loses its winners
7. Just outside the top 15
8. Fallen and acquired unicorns
9. Methodology
10. How to cite this data
11. Sources
12. Download raw data

The top 15

Europe's 15 largest private AI companies by confirmed valuation, as of 7 October 2026. Ranked by the latest confirmed, closed primary round in US dollars; euro figures are converted at the ECB reference rate of 6 October 2026 (1 EUR = 1.1269 USD).

Combined valuation: $123.67 billion, counting the stated lower bound for Mistral AI and ICEYE, which gave their valuations in euros as "more than" a figure (Stark Defence also stated euros). Helsing, Tekever, OLIX and CuspAI did not say whether their figures are pre- or post-money. NEURA Robotics' valuation is reported by CNBC and Bloomberg from sources; the company declined to comment. Quantum Systems announced the "signing" of its round. Tekever's figure comes from the first close of its Series D. AMI Labs' figure is derived from a reported $3.5 billion pre-money valuation plus the $1.03 billion raised. CuspAI and Quantexa are both at $2.6 billion; equal values are ordered by the more recent valuation date.

What the ranking shows

Three changes since May stand out.

Defence AI is now the largest category. Helsing, ICEYE, Quantum Systems, Tekever and Stark Defence combine to $47.3 billion, 38 percent of the top 15. In May, four defence companies accounted for $21.9 billion. Three of those four (Helsing, ICEYE and Quantum Systems) raised at higher valuations in June and July 2026, Tekever moved up from below the cut-off with the first close of a Series D at $6.4 billion, and Stark Defence entered at €3.2 billion.

Mistral AI is the most valuable company in the index. Its €3 billion Series D in September 2026, led by Samsung Electronics, set a post-money valuation of more than €21 billion. Mistral describes it as the largest equity round ever completed by a European technology company [1].

AI infrastructure enters the index. Nscale (AI cloud) and OLIX (inference chips and systems), both in London, add $17.9 billion. Nscale's Series C closed in March 2026, before the May edition, but the index had not ruled on whether AI infrastructure counts; it now does. Nscale filed for a New York listing on 18 September 2026 and had not priced as of 7 October 2026. If the listing completes, Nscale leaves the index under the private-company rule.

The gap with the US

OpenAI raised $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation in March 2026, according to CNBC [24]. It is still private; Bloomberg reported in September 2026 that it was in talks to raise at about $1.4 trillion, a round that had not closed by 7 October. Anthropic's $65 billion Series H in May 2026 valued it at $965 billion post-money [25].

The European top 15 together are worth 14.5 percent of OpenAI on its own and 12.8 percent of Anthropic. The May edition also compared Europe with a combined US top 10 taken from an aggregator. That comparison was dropped: no current primary or tier-one source publishes such a total, and two of its ten companies are no longer private. xAI merged into SpaceX, which listed in June 2026, and SpaceX completed its acquisition of Cursor in August 2026 [24].

These ratios are not a judgment on company quality. They reflect where growth-stage capital is currently being deployed, and where Europe's growth-stage capital is not.

Country breakdown

Germany leads by combined value; the United Kingdom has the most companies. In May the United Kingdom led with $24.3 billion. Its total now includes Nscale, OLIX and CuspAI but no longer Recursive Superintelligence (removed) or Quantexa (now first among the honourable mentions), while Germany added NEURA Robotics and Stark Defence and both Helsing and Quantum Systems raised at higher valuations.

Germany's total rests partly on Helsing's $18 billion; without it, Germany falls to $21.6 billion. France's two entries are both Paris AI labs; without Mistral AI, France's total is $4.53 billion. Finland enters via ICEYE. Portugal enters via Tekever, whose legal top entity is Tekever Holdings, S.A. in Portugal; Reuters reports that the company is now headquartered in Britain [8]. Country attribution follows the legal top entity.

The Netherlands and Spain left the top 15 in this update: Wonderful was removed because its privacy policy says it is incorporated in Israel, and Multiverse Computing because its Series C had not closed. No Swiss company qualifies; Gravis Robotics (Zurich) is near the line, as the methodology explains. The Nordic region's largest AI valuations are absent for reasons covered in Operationally European, legally American (Lovable operates from Stockholm but its top entity is under Delaware law) and Fallen and acquired unicorns (Sana acquired by Workday, Silo AI acquired by AMD).

Category breakdown

Defence AI and the model labs together make up 65 percent of the top 15. The model labs are Mistral AI and two labs founded in 2025 by researchers who left Google DeepMind (Ineffable Intelligence, David Silver) and Meta (AMI Labs, Yann LeCun).

Beyond those two groups, the index now spans AI infrastructure (Nscale, OLIX), autonomous driving (Wayve), robotics (NEURA Robotics), and applied AI for video (Synthesia), customer service (Parloa) and materials discovery (CuspAI). Robotics is new to the top 15; Humanoid follows among the honourable mentions.

Operationally European, legally American

Five widely cited European AI companies are excluded from the main index because their top legal entity is in the United States, most often under Delaware law. Two of them, Lovable and ElevenLabs, would rank fourth and sixth if they were included.

These five represent $35.05 billion of AI valuation built largely in Europe but held by US legal entities. Three things changed since May. ElevenLabs closed a $300 million employee tender at $22 billion in September 2026; that is a secondary sale and does not set the valuation used here. Nvidia signed a definitive agreement on 2 September 2026 to acquire Hugging Face, with about $11.9 billion payable to stockholders and closing expected in the first half of 2027. And Poolside's $12 billion round, shown in May, never closed, so its last confirmed valuation is $3 billion from October 2024.

The pattern is consistent: European founders, European-heavy engineering teams, European customers in many cases, but a US company as the legal entity that holds the equity and the intellectual property.

The reasons are not mysterious. Y Combinator and most growth-stage US venture funds require their portfolio companies to be Delaware C-corps. Several of these companies took US-led growth rounds and redomiciled. Sovereign Magazine published a dedicated editorial on Lovable's Delaware structure in early 2026 [31].

Two consequences follow. First, the headline "European AI" valuation depends heavily on what counting rule is applied. Adding the operationally European group to the top 15 produces a combined $158.72 billion, raising the European share of OpenAI to 18.6 percent. Removing them produces the $123.7 billion figure used as the headline of this index. Second, equity in these companies is held under US law, taxed under US rules, and subject to US export controls. From an industrial-policy standpoint they are American companies with European labour costs.

Why Europe loses its winners

The pattern in the previous section is not unique to AI. In September 2024 the European Commission published The Future of European Competitiveness, a report authored by Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank and former prime minister of Italy, at the request of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The report quantifies the phenomenon precisely [32]:

Between 2008 and 2021, 147 unicorns were founded in Europe, startups that went on to be valued over USD 1 billion. 40 of these have relocated their headquarters abroad, with the vast majority moving to the US.

Close to thirty percent of European unicorns relocate. The Draghi report names the mechanism in the same chapter:

Many EU companies with high growth-potential prefer to seek financing from US VCs and to scale up in the US market where they can more easily generate wide market reach and achieve profitability faster.

The structural arithmetic supports the choice. The share of global venture capital raised in the European Union is 5 percent, against 52 percent in the United States and 40 percent in China [32]. For AI specifically the gap is wider: 61 percent of global AI start-up funding goes to US companies, 17 percent to China, 6 percent to the EU. Atomico's State of European Tech 2025 puts the same problem in dollar terms: $177 billion flowed into US tech in the first nine months of 2025, against $44 billion of European startup funding for the full year. US deep tech companies raise $100 million-plus rounds five times more often than European peers [39].

The legal mechanism behind the relocation is the "Delaware flip", a documented procedure in which a non-US company becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of a newly formed US parent, typically a Delaware C-corporation. Index Ventures, Cooley, Orrick, and Morrison Foerster all publish public playbooks for non-US founders who want to do this. The trigger is almost always the same: a US-led growth round whose investors require a US-domiciled parent.

The Draghi report's deeper observation is that the consequences compound. Europe produces inventors and seed-stage companies. It loses them at growth stage to a deeper US capital market. The result, the report states, is that no European company with a market capitalisation above EUR 100 billion has been founded from scratch in the past fifty years, while all six US companies above USD 1 trillion were founded in that period.

The five companies in the previous section, totalling $35.05 billion of AI valuation, are this pattern in 2026. The acquisitions of Silo AI by AMD, Sana by Workday and Faculty AI by Accenture, and Aleph Alpha's pending combination with Cohere, are the same pattern at the exit stage. This update also removed two companies that had been counted as European in May: Recursive Superintelligence, whose own terms name a San Francisco company, and Wonderful, whose privacy policy says it is incorporated in Israel.

Two counter-examples are worth noting. Ineffable Intelligence, which raised Europe's largest seed round in April 2026 in a round co-led by Sequoia and Lightspeed, issued the shares from its UK company: the SEC filing for the round names Ineffable Intelligence Ltd, incorporated in the United Kingdom, as issuer [9]. Nscale, which filed for a New York listing in September 2026, plans to list as an English public limited company, Nscale plc, rather than through a US parent [3]. The pattern is not inevitable.

Just outside the top 15

Seven more companies meet every rule with a confirmed valuation of $1.0 billion or more. They are listed by value and are not counted in the totals above.

• Quantexa has the same $2.6 billion as CuspAI; equal values are ordered by the more recent valuation date, so Quantexa (March 2025) follows CuspAI (July 2026).
• n8n is ranked on its October 2025 Series C. Its May 2026 announcement of a strategic investment from SAP said the investment "values n8n at $5.2bn", but neither company disclosed the amount or said SAP bought newly issued shares, so the index does not use that figure.
• DeepL's $2.0 billion dates from May 2024 and is still its only priced benchmark.
• Harmattan AI was shown at $1.5 billion in May; every USD source for its January 2026 round says $1.4 billion. The company and TechCrunch give 2024 as its founding year; the French registry dates the company to July 2023.

Owkin and Tractable, listed here in May, are removed: GLEIF records show both are consolidated by Delaware parent companies.

Fallen and acquired unicorns

Several companies that would have appeared in earlier versions of this index no longer qualify as independent European private AI companies, or never did under the legal-headquarters rule.

Aleph Alpha (Heidelberg, Germany). Founded in 2019 and once positioned as Germany's sovereign-LLM champion, Aleph Alpha pivoted away from frontier foundation-model development in 2024 in favour of regulated-enterprise deployments. Cohere (Toronto, Canada) announced on 24 April 2026 that it would join forces with Aleph Alpha and signed a definitive business combination agreement on 16 September 2026; the deal is subject to regulatory approvals and had not closed as of 7 October 2026 [33]. A combined value of about $20 billion has been reported but not disclosed by the companies. Co-founder Jonas Andrulis gave up the CEO role in October 2025 and moved to chair the advisory board.

Builder.ai (London; Delaware parent). Built on the pitch that "AI builds your software for you". Its parent company, Engineer.ai Corp., is a Delaware corporation, so it would not have met this index's legal-headquarters rule. Subsequent reporting documented heavy reliance on offshore human developers rather than AI capabilities, and accounting irregularities [34]. Founder Sachin Dev Duggal stepped down as CEO in early 2025; Manpreet Ratia was CEO when the company announced insolvency proceedings on 20 May 2025, after creditor Viola Credit seized $37 million from its accounts. It filed for Chapter 7 in Delaware in June 2025. Bloomberg described it as once valued at about $1.5 billion; it had raised more than $450 million.

Stability AI (London; Delaware parent). Pioneered open-weight image generation with Stable Diffusion and reached a $1 billion valuation in October 2022. Companies House lists Stability AI, Inc., a US company, as owning 75 percent or more of the UK company, so it would not have met the legal-headquarters rule [35]. Founder Emad Mostaque resigned in March 2024; Prem Akkaraju became CEO in June 2024, and James Cameron joined the board in September 2024. In August 2026 it announced a $76 million Series B without disclosing a valuation.

Silo AI (Helsinki). Acquired by AMD for about $665 million in cash: announced in July 2024 and completed in August 2024 [36]. Now part of a US public company, Silo AI is excluded from the private-company ranking, but its acquisition is a data point about how European AI capacity flows under foreign acquisition.

Sana (Stockholm). Acquired by Workday for about $1.1 billion: announced in September 2025 and completed in November 2025 [37].

Faculty AI (London). Acquired by Accenture: announced in January 2026 and completed in March 2026 [38]. Accenture did not disclose the price; about $1 billion has been reported. Accenture plc is domiciled in Ireland and listed in New York.

The pattern across the past 24 months is consistent. The companies that exit the European private-AI universe most cleanly are the ones that succeed: through acquisition by a foreign listed company (Silo AI, Sana, Faculty AI) or through a US holding company in pursuit of growth-stage capital.

Did we miss a company?

This dataset is deliberately narrow: legal top entity and declared headquarters in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland; private; AI as the primary product; a confirmed, closed primary round. The top 15 are ranked by value, and every other qualifying company at $1.0 billion or more is listed as an honourable mention. If you know of a European AI company that fits and we missed it, write to info@builtineu.eu. Verified tip-offs are credited when the entry is added, and every change to published figures is logged on the corrections page.

Methodology

What "European" means in this index. The geographic scope covers the European technology ecosystem, not the political boundaries of the European Union. The headquarters rule accepts four jurisdictions:

• European Union (27 member states): the political and regulatory bloc.
• European Economic Area beyond the EU (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein): non-EU but inside the EU Single Market for goods, services, capital, and labour.
• United Kingdom: left the EU in January 2020 but remains the largest European venture-funding market. Excluding the UK would remove Nscale, Wayve, Ineffable Intelligence, Synthesia, OLIX and CuspAI from the top 15: $38.2 billion of valuation and six of the fifteen entries. Any "European AI" index that drops these companies stops being useful as a benchmark.
• Switzerland: not an EU member but home to ETH Zürich, EPFL, and a venture ecosystem closely integrated with German and French capital flows. No Swiss company qualifies in this update; Gravis Robotics (Zurich) is near the line (see below).

Other European tech-ranking publications (Sifted, Atomico's State of European Tech, EU-Startups, TechEU, the European Commission's Draghi report) all use the same wider grouping. Restricting strictly to EU member states would produce a smaller, less useful dataset and would diverge from how the European tech ecosystem is conventionally measured.

Inclusion rule. A company is included if it meets all four conditions on 7 October 2026: (1) its legal top entity and its declared headquarters are both in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland; (2) it is private: not listed, not acquired and not a subsidiary of another company; (3) AI is the primary product, not a secondary feature of a non-AI business; (4) it has a confirmed, closed primary round with a disclosed valuation. The 15 most valuable form the index; every other qualifying company at $1.0 billion or more is an honourable mention.

Headquarters rule. Both the legal top entity and the declared headquarters must be in Europe (ruling of 7 October 2026). Founder nationality is not used. A company whose top entity is incorporated outside Europe is excluded, and so is a company with a European legal entity that declares its global headquarters outside Europe. A US headquarters alongside a declared European one does not exclude: Synthesia has a regional US headquarters in New York, and Parloa lists "HQ Berlin / New York". Country attribution follows the legal top entity; for Tekever the city shown is the registered seat of its Portuguese holding company, while Reuters reports that the company is headquartered in Britain. Entities were checked against company registries (Companies House, the French and German registers, GLEIF, SEC filings) or the company's own legal pages, and each row names its entity [41]. This rule excludes:

• Lovable, ElevenLabs, Hugging Face, Black Forest Labs and Poolside (US top entities; see Operationally European, legally American)
• Fluidstack (an English company that declared New York its global headquarters in December 2025; confirmed at $7.5 billion in July 2026)
• Recursive Superintelligence (its own terms and privacy policy name Recursive Superintelligence, Inc. in San Francisco; its $650 million round closed at $4.65 billion)
• Wonderful (its privacy policy says it is incorporated under the laws of the State of Israel; $5 billion Series C in September 2026)
• Owkin and Tractable (consolidated by Delaware parents in the GLEIF register)
• Dataiku (top entity Dataiku Inc., Delaware, with a New York headquarters)
• Cohere (Toronto, Canada; a private non-European company)
• Google DeepMind (subsidiary of Alphabet) and Isomorphic Labs (Alphabet holds 75 percent or more per Companies House)
• Silo AI, Sana and Faculty AI (acquired) and Scaleway (subsidiary of the Iliad group)
• Aleph Alpha (combination with Cohere agreed, not closed)

Two companies stay out until their top entity is confirmed: Legora (its Series D was issued by Legora, Inc., a Delaware company, while its privacy policy names the Swedish Legora AB; last confirmed valuation $5.6 billion post-money, April 2026) and Feedzai (whether the Portuguese S.A. or Feedzai, Inc. in Delaware is the top entity has not been confirmed).

AI as the primary product. AI infrastructure counts and is labelled as such: Nscale (AI cloud) and OLIX (inference chips and systems) are in the top 15. Volta, which finances AI compute and lists offices in Palo Alto, London and New York ($2.4 billion, August 2026), is not included. Companies that have repositioned an existing product as an AI platform count when they describe themselves that way: n8n ("AI orchestration platform") and 9fin ("the AI-native platform for global debt markets"). Defence companies count when AI-driven autonomy is the product (Helsing, Quantum Systems, Tekever, Stark Defence, Harmattan AI); ICEYE, whose product is radar satellites with an AI analytics layer, remains a borderline inclusion. Near the line and not included: Kraken Technology Group, whose own pages present "autonomous and remotely operated vessels" rather than AI or autonomy software as the product ($1 billion, July 2026); and Gravis Robotics (Zurich), which describes its product as physical AI for autonomous excavators but does not state a valuation itself: $1 billion is reported, and the company lists three headquarters, including Austin, so it is not admitted until it confirms its global headquarters.

Ranking metric. Latest confirmed, closed primary-round valuation in US dollars. Euro valuations are converted at the ECB reference rate of 6 October 2026, 1 EUR = 1.1269 USD [40]. Secondary sales and tender offers do not set the value (ElevenLabs, Wayve, Synthesia). A round counts as closed when the company or a tier-one outlet reports the money as raised; this covers Quantum Systems, whose release announced the "signing" of its round, and NEURA Robotics, whose release announced a round of "up to" $1.4 billion. Rounds that are in talks or still open do not count: Multiverse Computing announced a Series C in July 2026 at a €1.5 billion pre-money valuation that "may remain open", and its last closed round disclosed no valuation, so it is not included. Where a company does not say whether its figure is pre- or post-money, the row says so. One row, AMI Labs, is ranked on a derived figure: $4.53 billion is the sum of the published $3.5 billion pre-money valuation and the $1.03 billion round, since no source prints the post-money figure. Where tier-one outlets report a valuation from sources and the company declines to comment, the row says so (NEURA Robotics). Equal values are ordered by the more recent valuation date.

Sources. Each row links up to three sources: company funding announcements, lead investors, tier-one reporting and registry records. They sit beside the valuation date, legal entity and notes in the sortable research table. Total raised is shown only where a source states a cumulative figure after the latest round; otherwise it reads "Not disclosed".

Exclusion: Roark Aerospace. Roark Aerospace, a UK-registered counter-drone defence company, announced in a December 2025 press release that it had closed a $210 million Series B at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation. No tier-one financial outlet (Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, CNBC) has independently confirmed the round, and Resilience Media published an investigation on 28 April 2026 titled "Inside the case of Roark Aerospace: The British defence unicorn no one can verify" [41]. The company is excluded pending independent confirmation of the round.

Data freshness. All valuations reflect rounds confirmed on or before 7 October 2026; rounds reported after that date are not reflected. Two rows rest on older rounds: DeepL's $2.0 billion (May 2024) and Quantexa's $2.6 billion (March 2025).

Limitations. Private-company valuations reflect a single transaction at a single moment with a selected investor set, not a market-clearing price. Secondary sales can price a company well above its last primary round: ElevenLabs' September 2026 employee tender valued it at $22 billion, double its Series D. Use this index as a benchmark, not a price.

How to cite this data

Sources

1. Mistral AI Series D, September 2026. Mistral AI: https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-makes-sovereign-open-weight-ai-to-frontier/. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/mistral-raises-e3b-as-sovereign-ai-becomes-big-business/. Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-08/mistral-ai-raises-at-21-billion-valuation-in-samsung-led-round
2. Helsing Series E, July 2026, and founding year (Defense News). Helsing release as republished by European Security & Defence: https://euro-sd.com/2026/07/news/cyber-coms/52272/helsing-raises-us1-8bn-in-series-e/. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/13/helsing-fund-raise-defense-18-billion.html. Defense News: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2026/07/13/helsing-raises-18-billion-in-europes-biggest-defense-startup-round/
3. Nscale Series C, March 2026, and IPO filing. Nscale: https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/nscale-series-c. Aker: https://www.inderes.dk/en/releases/aker-participates-in-nscales-series-c-funding-round-with-cash-investment-and-roll-up-of-joint-venture-stake. Form S-1, 18 September 2026: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2110365/000119312526395475/ck0002110365-20260918.htm. Nscale: https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/nscale-files-initial-public-offering
4. ICEYE Series F, June 2026. ICEYE: https://www.iceye.com/newsroom/press-releases/iceye-leads-a-new-era-of-sovereign-intelligence-from-space-with-1b-funding-round. Seraphim Space Investment Trust on completion: https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/seraphim-space-investment-trust--ssit/iceye-series-f-financing-round-and-c-share-update/9766206. EQT: https://eqtgroup.com/news/eqts-scaleup-europe-fund-makes-first-investment-co-leads-1-billion-funding-round-in-iceye-europes-leader-in-sovereign-intelligence-from-space-2026-08-05
5. Wayve Series D, February 2026. Wayve: https://wayve.ai/press/series-d/. Extension: https://wayve.ai/press/series-d-extension/. Total funding: https://wayve.ai/about/
6. Quantum Systems Series D, July 2026. Quantum Systems release: https://quantum-systems.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/260702_PR_QS_Series-D_EN.pdf. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/02/autonomous-defense-startup-quantum-systems.html. Sifted: https://sifted.eu/articles/quantum-systems-fundraise-humanoids-merger-stark
7. NEURA Robotics Series C, June 2026. NEURA Robotics release: https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-06/68733327-neura-robotics-announces-record-series-c-of-up-to-dollar-1-4-billion-to-accelerate-the-world-s-leading-physical-ai-platform-004.htm. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/10/neura-robotics-funding-ai-humanoid-robots.html. The Next Web, citing Bloomberg: https://thenextweb.com/news/neura-robotics-1-4b-series-c-physical-ai
8. Tekever Series D first close, September 2026. Tekever: https://www.tekever.com/news/tekever-raises-us580-million-reaching-us6-4-billion-valuation-in-series-d-round-led-by-uc-investments-and-baillie-gifford/. Reuters (syndicated): https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/ai-drone-maker-tekever-valued-6-4-billion-580-million/ and https://kfgo.com/2026/09/23/ai-drone-maker-tekever-valued-at-6-4-billion-after-580-million-funding-round/. Tekever Ltd accounts naming Tekever Holdings, S.A. (Portugal) as ultimate controlling entity, Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08684764/filing-history
9. Ineffable Intelligence seed, April 2026. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/deepmind-ineffable-intelligence-record-seed-funding-nvidia-google.html. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/27/deepminds-david-silver-just-raised-1-1b-to-build-an-ai-that-learns-without-human-data/. SEC Form D naming Ineffable Intelligence Ltd (United Kingdom) as issuer: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2128735/000212873526000001/primary_doc.xml
10. AMI Labs seed, March 2026. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/09/yann-lecuns-ami-labs-raises-1-03-billion-to-build-world-models/. AMI Labs: https://amilabs.xyz/updates. French company register: https://recherche-entreprises.api.gouv.fr/search?q=994675254
11. Synthesia Series E, January 2026. Synthesia: https://www.synthesia.io/post/series-e-200-million-4-billion-valuation-future-work. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/26/nvidia-alphabet-vc-arms-back-synthesia.html. Headquarters: https://www.synthesia.io/post/why-synthesia-is-expanding-in-the-us
12. Stark Defence, June 2026. Bloomberg (syndicated by The Star): https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2026/06/25/stark-lands-us570mil-in-one-of-europes-biggest-defence-rounds. Resilience Media: https://resiliencemedia.co/stark-confirms-monster-e500m-funding-round-reportedly-approaching-a-e3b-valuation/. Imprint: https://www.stark-defence.com/en/imprint
13. OLIX Series B, August 2026. OLIX: https://olix.com/news/company-raises-series-b. Privacy policy: https://olix.com/legal/privacy-policy. Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15585099
14. Parloa Series D, January 2026. Parloa: https://www.parloa.com/parloa-in-the-press/parloa-valued-at-3-billion-with-350m-series-d/. Parloa quick facts ("HQ Berlin / New York"): https://www.parloa.com/parloa-in-the-press/. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/15/parloa-triples-its-valuation-in-8-months-to-3b-with-350m-raise/. Privacy policy: https://www.parloa.com/privacy-policy/
15. CuspAI Series B, July 2026. Tech.eu: https://tech.eu/2026/07/20/jeff-bezos-and-sovereign-ai-back-cuspai-in-450m-raise. Sifted: https://sifted.eu/articles/cuspai-lands-450m-round-to-accelerate-ai-materials-discovery. CuspAI: https://cusp.ai/
16. Quantexa Series F, March 2025. Reuters (syndicated), August 2026: https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/british-data-group-quantexa-explores-uk-us-ipo-sources-say/. Quantexa: https://www.quantexa.com/newsroom/. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/04/quantexa-nabs-175m-at-a-2-6b-valuation-to-double-down-on-data-analytics-for-ai/
17. n8n Series C, October 2025, and SAP investment, May 2026. n8n: https://blog.n8n.io/series-c/. Tech.eu: https://tech.eu/2025/10/09/hyped-ai-business-automation-startup-n8n-raises-180m-valuing-it-at-2bn/. n8n release as republished by Highland Europe: https://www.highlandeurope.com/n8n-valuation-doubles-to-5-2bn-as-sap-makes-strategic-investment-and-plans-to-embed-the-ai-platform-into-joule-studio/
18. PhysicsX Series C, June 2026. PhysicsX: https://www.physicsx.ai/newsroom/physicsx-announces-300m-series-c-to-accelerate-physics-ai-for-industrial-engineering. Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12134466
19. DeepL, May 2024. DeepL: https://www.deepl.com/en/press-release/deepl-announces-300-million-investment-at-2-billion-valuation-fueled-by-global-demand-for-ai-language-solutions. Tech.eu, September 2026: https://tech.eu/2026/09/21/being-a-private-company-actually-has-a-lot-of-advantages-right-now-says-deepl-boss. Imprint: https://www.deepl.com/en/publisher
20. Harmattan AI Series B, January 2026. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/12/harmattan-ai-raises-200m-series-b-led-by-dassault-aviation-becomes-defense-unicorn/. Sifted: https://sifted.eu/articles/harmattan-ai-200m-series-b-unicorn. Atlantic VC: https://atlantic.vc/stories/harmattan-ai-defence-unicorn-200m-dassault-aviation-autonomous-drones-macron
21. Humanoid Series A, July 2026. Reuters (syndicated): https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/robotics-startup-humanoid-raises-152-131649836.html. Humanoid release: https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-07/69107232-humanoid-raises-dollar-152-million-at-dollar-1-35-billion-post-money-valuation-becoming-europe-s-first-pure-play-humanoid-robotics-unicorn-004.htm. Privacy policy: https://thehumanoid.ai/privacy-policy/
22. 9fin Series C, March 2026. 9fin release (PR Newswire): https://www.bolsamania.com/nota-de-prensa_print/mercados/9fin-raises-170m-series-c-at-13b-valuation-to-scale-ai-platform-for-debt-markets--22217801.html. Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10451957/persons-with-significant-control
23. Gravis Robotics (near the line, not admitted). Sifted on the reported valuation: https://sifted.eu/articles/gravis-robotics-1bn-valuation-200m-softbank. Gravis Robotics: https://www.gravisrobotics.com/series-a. Headquarters listed on its homepage: https://www.gravisrobotics.com/
24. OpenAI and US comparison. CNBC on OpenAI's March 2026 round: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/16/open-ai-investors-new-funding-round.html. TechCrunch on the reported $1.4 trillion talks: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-reportedly-in-talks-to-raise-30b-round-at-1-4t-valuation/. CNBC on the SpaceX and xAI merger: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/musk-xai-spacex-biggest-merger-ever.html. CNBC on SpaceX's Nasdaq listing in June 2026 and the completed xAI merger: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/16/spacex-spcx-cursor-acquisition-ipo.html. CNBC on the Cursor acquisition: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/29/openai-cursor-spacex-model-access.html
25. Anthropic Series H, May 2026: https://www.anthropic.com/news/series-h
26. Lovable Series C, August 2026. Lovable: https://lovable.dev/blog/series-c. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/12/lovable-confirms-new-13-3b-valuation-raises-another-400m/. Terms: https://lovable.dev/terms
27. ElevenLabs Series D, February 2026, and employee tender, September 2026. ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/series-d. Tender: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/tender-22bn. GLEIF: https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records/254900MCM69TO5IDN844
28. Hugging Face. Nvidia Form 8-K, September 2026: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000104581026000078/nvda-20260902.htm. Nvidia: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-to-acquire-hugging-face/
29. Black Forest Labs Series B, December 2025. Black Forest Labs: https://bfl.ai/blog/our-300m-series-b. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/01/black-forest-labs-raises-300m-at-3-25b-valuation/. Privacy policy: https://bfl.ai/legal/privacy-policy
30. Poolside. Sifted on its 2023 move to Paris: https://sifted.eu/articles/poolside-raises-126m-relocated-france-news. SiliconANGLE on the October 2024 Series B: https://siliconangle.com/2024/10/02/poolside-raises-500m-take-github-others-ai-coding-assistants/. Bloomberg on the 2025 talks: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/private-equity/nvidia-to-invest-up-to-1-billion-in-ai-startup-poolside. Quartz on the investor letter: https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/nvidia-pays-6-billion-license-115520933.html. EULA: https://poolside.ai/legal/eula
31. Sovereign Magazine, "Sweden's AI Darling Lovable Is Actually a Delaware Company": https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/eu-focus/swedens-ai-darling-lovable-is-actually-a-delaware-company-and-thats-europes-real-problem/
32. Draghi, M. (2024, September). The Future of European Competitiveness. Part A: A competitiveness strategy for Europe. European Commission. Published under CC BY 4.0. https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/draghi-report_en. Direct PDF: https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/97e481fd-2dc3-412d-be4c-f152a8232961_en. Cited statistics: 40 of 147 European unicorns relocating HQ (2008-2021); 5 percent of global VC raised in EU vs 52 percent US; 6 percent of global AI start-up funding to EU vs 61 percent US.
33. Aleph Alpha and Cohere. Cohere, April 2026: https://cohere.com/blog/cohere-alephalpha-join-forces. Definitive agreement, September 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cohere-and-aleph-alpha-sign-agreement-to-become-the-first-transatlantic-sovereign-ai-solution-302880758.html. TechCrunch on the reported combined value: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/24/cohere-acquires-merges-with-german-based-startup-to-create-a-transatlantic-ai-powerhouse/. Handelsblatt on the CEO change: https://www.handelsblatt.com/technik/ki/aleph-alpha-gruender-jonas-andrulis-gibt-chefposten-ab/100161686.html
34. Builder.ai. Bloomberg investigation: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-07-30/startup-builder-ai-goes-from-1-5-billion-unicorn-to-bankruptcy. Rest of World: https://restofworld.org/2025/builderai-ai-apps-downfall/. Bloomberg on the insolvency: https://news.bgov.com/financial-accounting/microsoft-backed-builder-ai-to-enter-insolvency-proceedings. TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/20/once-worth-over-1b-microsoft-backed-builder-ai-is-running-out-of-money/. Tech.eu on the CEO change: https://tech.eu/2025/03/03/builderai-founder-steps-down-as-ceo-but-remains-chief-wizard/. GLEIF (Engineer.ai Corp., Delaware): https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records/5493008K6YD9HW5L8E74
35. Stability AI. Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12295325/persons-with-significant-control. James Cameron joins the board: https://stability.ai/news-updates/james-cameron-joins-stability-ai-board-of-directors. Series B, August 2026: https://stability.ai/news-updates/stability-ai-latest-funding-backed-by-entertainment-industry-biggest-names. TechCrunch, 2022: https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/17/stability-ai-the-startup-behind-stable-diffusion-raises-101m/
36. AMD acquisition of Silo AI. Announcement: https://ir.amd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1206/amd-to-acquire-silo-ai-to-expand-enterprise-ai-solutions. Completion: https://ir.amd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1210/amd-completes-acquisition-of-silo-ai
37. Workday acquisition of Sana. Announcement: https://newsroom.workday.com/2025-09-16-Workday-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Sana. Completion: https://newsroom.workday.com/2025-11-04-Workday-Completes-Acquisition-of-Sana
38. Accenture acquisition of Faculty. Announcement: https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2026/accenture-to-acquire-faculty-to-scale-ai-capabilities. Completion: https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2026/accenture-completes-acquisition-of-faculty. The Telegraph on the reported value: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vote-leave-linked-ai-firm-164653794.html
39. Atomico, State of European Tech 2025: https://www.stateofeuropeantech.com/
40. European Central Bank, euro reference rates (USD, 6 October 2026: 1.1269): https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/eurofxref-graph-usd.en.html
41. Headquarters and exclusion evidence. Recursive Superintelligence terms: https://www.recursive.com/terms. GV on its $4.65 billion round: https://www.gv.com/news/recursive-superintelligence-self-improving-ai. Wonderful privacy policy: https://www.wonderful.ai/legal/privacy. Owkin (GLEIF): https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records/894500SZMGAH0XINWR03/direct-parent-relationship. Tractable (GLEIF): https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records/9845008ZC4A59KY61447/direct-parent-relationship. Multiverse Computing release: https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/07/27/multiverse-computing-announces-series-c-fundraising-targeting-up-to-570-million/. Fluidstack headquarters: https://www.fluidstack.io/news/fluidstack-expands-u-s-investment-by-relocating-global-headquarters-to-new-york-city. Fluidstack Series A: https://www.fluidstack.io/news/series-a-announcement. Legora Series D extension: https://legora.com/newsroom/legora-extends-series-d-with-additional-50-million-welcomes-atlassian-and-nventures-as-investors. Volta (PYMNTS): https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/volta-exits-stealth-2-billion-dollar-valuation-build-ai-infrastructure/. Kraken Technology Group: https://krakentechnology.com/articles/kraken-technology-group-raises-160m-at-1bn-valuation. Roark Aerospace (Resilience Media): https://resiliencemedia.co/inside-the-case-of-roark-aerospace-the-british-defence-unicorn-no-one-can-verify/. Isomorphic Labs (Companies House): https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13223825/persons-with-significant-control

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License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Free to share and adapt with attribution.

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Data date: 7 October 2026 (first published 14 May 2026). Every change to published figures is logged in the corrections log.

For the sortable, filterable view of the same dataset, with legal entities and per-row notes, see the companion research page: The European AI Index 2026.