Helsing: the start-up that makes drones, submarines and AI for war - and Spotify's Daniel Ek is betting €600m on it
- Daniel Ek (CEO of Spotify), through his investment firm Prima Materia, is investing €600 million in defence start-up Helsing.
- The company is thus valued at €12 billion, making it one of the top 5 most valuable European technology start-ups.
- Helsing is rapidly transforming from a pure AI software company to a next-generation defence manufacturer - producing drones, autonomous submarines, aerial systems and war software.
Daniel Ek believes that future conflicts will be determined by AI and autonomous systems. His investment is not just financial - it is strategic:
Helsing is developing, among other things:
- AI for air and naval decision-making
- systems linking drones to fighters (e.g. Saab)
- underwater autonomous surveillance submarines
- software for real-time combat scenarios
The company is clearly setting itself apart from the conventional arms makers - it has rejected a merger with Rheinmetall, is not selling to large conglomerates and wants to go public as an independent entity.
- Helsing is not just "another AI start-up". It is Europe's answer to arms companies like Palantir or Anduril.
- In a global world of conflict and instability, there is a growing demand for autonomous defence, sovereignty and high-tech weapons.
- Daniel Ek has already once disrupted the global market for Spotify. Now he has the chance to revolutionise the future of war.
Very interesting, and when might the company go public, no word on when? 😊 These ideas certainly have a great chance, because there will always be war. And I don't think, I hope, that it's nationwide anymore because the world has such weapons that it could wipe out humanity, but local warfare it always has been and always will be, mostly because of business too, because business is huge in this.
These businesses have huge potential and in a few years companies like $LMT will be terribly behind.
I'm mainly invested in $PLTR and would love to invest in that Anduril.