Meituan introduces LongCat-2.0, a new AI model with a 1.6-trillion-parameter design, trained entirely on domestic chips, showcasing China's shift away from US reliance. The model, open-sourced for community scrutiny, highlights Meituan's ambition in agentic commerce, with pricing set competitively against established models.

X has introduced a hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing AI agents to access real-time platform data securely via its API. This move aligns with industry trends towards standardized AI integration, offering developers easier enterprise AI deployment and enhancing tool capabilities without managing their own infrastructure.

VivaTech 2026 in Paris shattered attendance records with over 200,000 visitors, highlighting a decade of innovation focused on AI, greentech, space, and deeptech. The event showcased groundbreaking tech demos, awarded notable innovation leaders, and emphasized Europe's role in fostering cross-border tech scale-ups.

AI search visibility now demands diversification across eight key channels, not just a reliance on Reddit, to build durable citation signals. Reddit leads with 40% of AI citations, but integrating platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia is crucial for a robust AI search presence.

Lucida AI, founded in 2024, has developed a speech-native platform for real-time, AI-powered conversations, raising €7.24 million in a seed round led by Velocity Capital. The funds will expand language offerings and grow its enterprise solutions, tapping into its 3 million users and over 2.2 billion spoken interaction minutes.

Couchbase launches the AI Data Plane, integrating Agent Memory and an MCP server to streamline AI operations across its Capella and self-managed platforms. This move aims to reduce data silos, enhance AI agent performance, and offers a new Trino adapter for seamless SQL access, marking a significant step toward unified data infrastructure.

Wayve, a London startup valued at $8.6 billion, offers an AI driving system to automakers, aiming to be the 'Intel Inside' of autonomous vehicles. With backing from giants like Stellantis, Nissan, and Microsoft, the company plans robotaxi trials with Uber in 2026, while major deployments are set for 2028.

Etched, an AI chip startup, has secured $800 million in funding, positioning itself as a significant contender against Nvidia in AI inference hardware, now valued at $5 billion. With plans to ship its high-density inference chips this summer, Etched targets improved performance with innovative cooling and memory architecture, backed by prominent investors including TSMC's VentureTech Alliance.

Revolut alumni are now at the forefront of a burgeoning wave of European startups, rivaling giants like Klarna and Spotify. This trend highlights their influence beyond fintech, impacting investment and mentorship across the continent.

GrowersTech is at the forefront of the AI-in-agriculture revolution, leveraging agronomy-specific insights through their Axiom engine. With significant investment and government backing, the sector is poised to grow from $2.43 billion in 2025 to over $8 billion by 2031, promising transformative impacts on global agriculture.

Acti has launched an innovative AI-powered keyboard for iOS and Android, allowing users to perform actions within apps without switching, enhancing efficiency across interactions. This keyboard introduces AI agents for tasks like translating messages and creating meeting links, while emphasizing privacy by processing data locally and requiring user permission for external processing.

Amazon is expanding its Amazon Now service to over 300 cities in India, investing an additional $13 billion by 2030 to bolster AI and cloud capabilities. This move intensifies competition with local quick-commerce rivals like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, as the battle for market share emphasizes service quality and ecosystem integration over price.

Rakuten and AST SpaceMobile are spearheading a $926 million satellite network initiative in Japan, backed by government subsidies. The project seeks to enhance connectivity during outages and reduce foreign dependency.

TabFM, a pioneering foundation model, revolutionizes tabular data analysis with zero-shot classification and regression, eliminating manual training and tuning. Integrated into BigQuery, it empowers non-experts with AI-driven predictions, outperforming traditional algorithms.

Omnea, in collaboration with Firedrop, has unveiled the Future Founders Fund to support its employees in launching their own startups, offering $250,000 in seed funding. This initiative is designed to enhance recruitment and retention by fostering a founder-like culture, providing mentorship and leveraging a vast network of tech leaders to guide budding entrepreneurs within Omnea.

Qualcomm's acquisition of Modular highlights a strategic shift towards software layers compatible with diverse hardware, crucial for AI workloads. This approach enhances cost efficiency and scalability, aligning with GV's focus on foundational technologies, as Modular showcases promising returns and a potential independent IPO path.

Hong Kong is positioning itself as a key hub for European startups aiming to penetrate the Asian market, with a focus on AI sovereignty and large-scale collaboration. Leveraging its legal framework and strategic location, Hong Kong's government and HKSTP are fostering innovation by allocating over HK$100 billion to connect academia, industry, and global networks.

Venture capital firm P101 is driving a trend of VC-led mergers and acquisitions, notably acquiring Italian seed investor PranaVentures. This Milan-based firm encourages portfolio M&A to enhance growth and sector strength, reflecting a broader shift in VC strategies.

Nebex, a space fintech startup, has raised $30 million to develop a financial exchange for the burgeoning space economy. Partnering with JPMorgan, Nebex aims to streamline cross-border space deals and support global collaboration, with a full platform launch targeted by year-end.