To Fight Drone Wars, EU Needs Tech-Style Finance: Parmy Olson

For many years, defense was seen as an unsavory place for tech developers’ time and money. Alphabet Inc.’s Google explicitly banned its AI from being used to develop weapons and surveillance tools. Now the tide is turning thanks to the aggression of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Google has relaxed its ban, and defense tech is Europe’s fastest-growing sector for startups with venture capital funding projected to rise by 132% in 2025 from last year, according to Dealroom.co, a Dutch market-research firm. Defense tech now accounts for 6.2% of total European VC funding, up from less than 1% before 2020. Much of the new ...