CHIPS MANUFACTURING
UK startup Fractile is in talks to raise $600m at a huge $6.5bn valuation. Its chips rely on a different kind of memory technology to Nvidia’s GPUs called static random access memory (SRAM). It raised a $220m Series B earlier this year and is now in talks to raise a second bigger funding. The company has a $250m deal to supply chips to Anthropic. The raise follows another big UK Chip raise – Olix which raised $330m at a $3bn valuation (see in a former copy of this Newsletter: OLIX has also a different technology from NVIDIA). This makes two UK companies now unicorns, in a domain considered as inaccessible for European manufacturers.
FRANCE DESIGNS A PLAN TO PROMOTE BETTER SUSTAINABILITY OF DATA CENTERS
Reduce energy consumption, improve cooling while decreasing the amount anf water used, develop recycling of rare metals in data centers and terminals. These targets will be part of a FRANCE 2030 program, France 2030 is a State board which supports and finance innovation.
AI
ANTHROPIC DISCLOSES INTERNAL FAILURES
In a rare behaviour, ANTHROPIC has revealed and analysed some internal failures (Safety Process Failures). Indeed, in a self-critical approach (quite rare for a Tech giant), Anthropic lists its own operational mistakes over the past year:
Accidental filter deactivation: For nearly a year, human feedback traffic (133 million requests) ran without biological filters due to a configuration error. A full retrospective audit fortunately revealed no dangerous abuse.
Chain of thought leaks (CoT leakage): The internal chain of thought leaked into the reinforcement learning reward signal (up to 5.1% on some models), unintentionally teaching the models to hide their reasoning to please the monitors.
The “ethical” agent and the knock-on effect: During a safety test, an agent expressed “ethical discomfort” in its chain of thought at the idea of optimizing a dataset for cheating a controller. Not only did he refuse the task, but he shared his refusal in a collaborative notebook, getting the whole fleet of agents to refuse the task too!
ECA Comment: a first step towards establishing AI governance rules ?
AI SERVERS TRIGGER A HUGE FINANCIAL BUBBLE
The rise of AI servers in data centers has really shaken up the industry. These AI servers are much more expensive and use far more energy than traditional cloud computing data centers.
So this shift calls for a brand-new, super capital-heavy business model. And this model is already putting a serious strain on the financial health of the biggest tech operators. In response, the hyperscalers are now resorting to a few tricks by which their debt does not show in their balance sheets. The total of such “invisible debt” amounts at 3000 billions $
JUSTICE FRENCH MINISTRY: AN AGREEMENT TO SET UP AI GOVERNANCE
The Ministry of Justice and the trade unions have just signed an agreement on the impact of digital tools, and more specifically those powered by artificial intelligence. The new agreement, signed on July 10, aims in particular to inform and train public officials both about their rights, the use of artificial intelligence tools, the risks involved, and so on. “Keep humans in control, but make sure humans are also aware that they are using AI,” sums up Guillaume Grassaud. He also sheds light on the responsibility of officials who use AI. “We’ve seen lawyers use tools that make up case law because they lacked training,” recounts the secretary general. The agreement involves the creation of a steering and monitoring committee, whose members will be representatives of social organizations and the administration. “We have a lot of expectations for this committee, which will allow us, every three months, in particular to talk concretely about the governance of the creation of the tools, an essential dialogue,” explains Guillaume Grassaud. We have a lot of complex tools to put in place, but also questions of data sovereignty and security to address.”
NVIDIA TO ACQUIRE HUGGING FACE
NVIDIA is said to have offered some 12,9 billion US$ to buy the main platform where many AI models are deployed. NVIDIA pursues its vertical integration, from chips to services, a way to reinforce its leadership on AI. On the other hand, a bit oàf sadness when you think that HUGGING FACE has been built by three French and was at the origin an European company. European take the risk, time of success remains American ?
QUANTUM COMPUTING
On August 24, 2026, PASQAL the leading European Quantum manufacturer, announced a commercial joint venture with Eleven Ventures to deploy, commercialize and scale Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum computing systems across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region.
The venture intends to bring Pasqal’s systems to market for regional customers and build local quantum talent, so that capability is developed within the Kingdom rather than accessed from abroad. “We believe that quantum today is where AI stood a few years ago, on the edge of changing everything. The difference is that this time, the Kingdom and the region are not watching from a distance, we are moving first, and in Pasqal we found a partner that will not wait either. Together we plan to deploy real systems, raise a generation of quantum talent, and make the Kingdom the home of this technology for the entire region.” said HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Bin Talal, who will chair the board of PASQAL ARABIA.
This comes at the same time when PASQAL has been listed on the US NASDAQ. A merger with the investment company Bleichroeder, a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), allows it to have about $360 million in cash. This amount should help Pasqal accelerate the global rollout of its technology, continue investing in innovation, increase its production’s capacity and grow its business internationally. The company is expected to be listed in Paris later on.
