EU invests €2.9 billion to drive net-zero industrial transformation

The European Commission has approved €2.9 billion in funding for 61 large-scale net-zero technology projects, marking one of the EU’s most significant investments in clean innovation to date.

Financed through revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System, the initiative aims to accelerate Europe’s path towards climate neutrality by 2050.

The selected projects cover 19 industrial sectors across 18 Member States and target areas such as renewable energy, energy storage, zero-emission mobility, and industrial carbon management.

Collectively, they are expected to cut more than 220 million tonnes of CO₂ over the next decade, reinforcing Europe’s global leadership in sustainable technologies instead of relying on imports.

Funded under the Innovation Fund, which draws on an estimated €40 billion in ETS revenues, the initiative highlights the EU’s industrial readiness for decarbonisation. The latest call attracted 359 applications requesting €21.7 billion in support, underscoring the rapid growth of the continent’s cleantech sector.

Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra described the announcement as proof that the EU is turning its climate ambitions into industrial reality, creating green jobs and strengthening economic resilience. The next round of Innovation Fund calls will open in December 2025.

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EU invests €107 million in RAISE for AI in science

The European Commission has unveiled RAISE, a new virtual institute designed to unite Europe’s AI research and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.

The launch, announced in Copenhagen, marks a flagship moment in the EU’s strategy to strengthen its leadership in science and technology through collective action.

Funded with €107 million under Horizon Europe, RAISE will bring together Europe’s best resources in data, computing power, and research talent.

An initiative that will help scientists apply AI to pressing challenges such as cancer treatment, climate change, and natural disaster prediction, while promoting innovation that serves humanity instead of commercial interests alone.

RAISE will work with the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking to secure access to AI Gigafactories and will dedicate €75 million to train and attract global researchers through Networks of Excellence.

The Commission also plans to double Horizon Europe’s annual AI investments to more than €3 billion, ensuring that the EU remains a global leader in scientific AI.

A project that reflects the EU’s ambition to achieve technological sovereignty and create an inclusive AI ecosystem. As RAISE grows in phases towards 2034, it will strengthen cooperation among Member States, academia, and industry, setting a benchmark for responsible and innovative AI in science.

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Salesforce’s Agentforce helps organisations deliver 24/7 support

Organisations across public and private sectors are using Salesforce’s Agentforce to engage people whenever and wherever they need support.

From local governments to hospitals and education platforms, AI systems are transforming how services are delivered and accessed.

In the city of Kyle, Texas, an Agentforce-driven 311 app enables residents to report issues such as potholes or water leaks. The city plans to make the system voice-enabled, reducing traditional call volumes while maintaining a steady flow of service requests and faster responses.

At Pearson, AI enables students to access their online learning platforms instantly, regardless of their time zone. The company stated that the technology fosters loyalty by providing immediate assistance, rather than requiring users to wait for human support.

Meanwhile, UChicago Medicine utilises AI to streamline patient interactions, from prescription refills to scheduling, while ambient listening tools enable doctors to focus entirely on patients rather than typing notes.

Salesforce said Agentforce empowers organisations to save resources while enhancing trust, accessibility, and service quality. By meeting people on their own terms, AI enables more responsive and human-centred interactions across various industries.

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Live exploitation of CVE-2024-1086 across older Linux versions flagged by CISA

CISA’s warning serves as a reminder that ransomware is not confined to Windows. A Linux kernel flaw, CVE-2024-1086, is being exploited in real-world incidents, and federal networks face a November 20 patch-or-disable deadline. Businesses should read it as their cue, too.

Attackers who reach a vulnerable host can escalate privileges to root, bypass defences, and deploy malware. Many older kernels remain in circulation even though upstream fixes were shipped in January 2024, creating a soft target when paired with phishing and lateral movement.

Practical steps matter more than labels. Patch affected kernels where possible, isolate any components that cannot be updated, and verify the running versions against vendor advisories and the NIST catalogue. Treat emergency changes as production work, with change logs and checks.

Resilience buys time when updates lag. Enforce least privilege, require MFA for admin entry points, and segment crown-jewel services. Tune EDR to spot privilege-escalation behaviour and suspicious modules, then rehearse restores from offline, immutable backups.

Security habits shape outcomes as much as CVEs. Teams that patch quickly, validate fixes, and document closure shrink the blast radius. Teams that defer kernel maintenance invite repeat visits, turning a known bug into an avoidable outage.

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Brain-inspired networks boost AI performance and cut energy use

Researchers at the University of Surrey have developed a new method to enhance AI by imitating how the human brain connects information. The approach, called Topographical Sparse Mapping, links each artificial neuron only to nearby or related ones, replicating the brain’s efficient organisation.

According to findings published in Neurocomputing, the structure reduces redundant connections and improves performance without compromising accuracy. Senior lecturer Dr Roman Bauer said intelligent systems can now be designed to consume less energy while maintaining power.

Training large models today often requires over a million kilowatt-hours of electricity, a trend he described as unsustainable.

An advanced version, Enhanced Topographical Sparse Mapping, introduces a biologically inspired pruning process that refines neural connections during training, similar to how the brain learns.

Researchers believe that the system could contribute to more realistic neuromorphic computers, which simulate brain functions to process data more efficiently.

The Surrey team said that such a discovery may advance generative AI systems and pave the way for sustainable large-scale model training. Their work highlights how lessons from biology can shape the next generation of energy-efficient computing.

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Nexperia chip exports may resume as China softens stance on ban

China’s Ministry of Commerce announced plans to exempt specific Nexperia orders from its export ban, aiming to stabilise the global semiconductor supply chain after the Netherlands seized control of the Chinese-owned Dutch chipmaker.

The ministry stated that exemptions would be granted when the criteria were met, encouraging affected firms to apply.

A move that follows a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Busan, where both sides reached a framework allowing Nexperia to resume shipments under eased restrictions.

Washington reportedly agreed to pause the 50 percent subsidiary rule, which restricts exports from companies half-owned by entities on its trade blocklist. Wingtech Technology, Nexperia’s Chinese parent, has been under these restrictions since December.

Beijing’s export ban, introduced after the Dutch takeover citing national security concerns, disrupted supplies from Nexperia’s Dongguan factory, which assembles about 70 percent of its products.

China condemned the Netherlands for intervening in corporate affairs, warning that such actions deepen global supply chain instability.

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A new phase for Hyundai and NVIDIA in AI mobility and manufacturing

NVIDIA and Hyundai Motor Group will build a Blackwell-powered AI factory for autonomous vehicles, smart plants and robotics. The partners will co-develop core physical AI, shifting from tool adoption to capability building across mobility, manufacturing and on-device chips.

The programme targets integrated training, validation and deployment on 50,000 Blackwell GPUs. In parallel, both sides will back the physical AI cluster in South Korea with about $3 billion, creating an NVIDIA AI Technology Center, Hyundai’s Physical AI Application Center and regional data centres.

Hyundai will use NVIDIA DGX for model training, Omniverse and Cosmos on RTX PRO Servers for digital twins and simulation, and DRIVE AGX Thor in vehicles and robots for real-time intelligence. The stack underpins design, testing and deployment at an industrial scale.

Factory digital twins will unify data, enable virtual commissioning and improve predictive maintenance, supporting safer human-robot work. Isaac Sim will validate tasks and ergonomics before line deployment, speeding robot integration and lifting throughput, quality and uptime.

Vehicles will gain evolving features via Nemotron and NeMo, from autonomy to personalised assistants and adaptive comfort. DRIVE AGX Thor with safety-certified DriveOS will power driver assistance and next-generation safety, linking car and factory into one intelligent ecosystem.

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An AI factory brings Nvidia compute into Samsung’s fabs

Nvidia and Samsung outlined a semiconductor AI factory that embeds accelerated computing into production. Over 50,000 GPUs will drive digital twins, predictive maintenance, and real-time optimisation. Partners present the project as a template for autonomous fabs.

The alliance spans design and manufacturing. Samsung uses CUDA-X and EDA tools to speed simulation and verification. Integrating cuLitho into OPC reports roughly twentyfold gains in computational lithography at advanced nodes.

Factory planning and logistics run on Omniverse digital twins and RTX PRO servers. Unified analytics support anomaly detection, capacity planning, and flow balancing. Managers expect shorter ramps and smoother changeovers with higher equipment effectiveness.

Robotics and edge AI extend intelligence to the line. Isaac Sim, Cosmos models, and Jetson Thor target safe collaboration, faster task retargeting, and teleoperation. Samsung’s in-house models enable multilingual assistance and on-site decision support.

A decades-long Nvidia–Samsung relationship underpins the effort, from NV1 DRAM to HBM3E and HBM4. Work continues on memory, modules, and foundry services, plus AI-RAN research with networks in South Korea and academia linking factory intelligence with next-gen connectivity.

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Cyber and energy leaders meet to harden EU power grid resilience

Europe’s 8th Cybersecurity Forum in Brussels brought together more than 200 officials and operators from energy, cybersecurity and technology to discuss how to protect the bloc’s increasingly digital, decentralised grids. ENISA said strengthening energy infrastructure security is urgent as geopolitics and digitalisation raise risk.

Discussions focused on turning new EU frameworks into real-world protection: the Cyber Resilience Act placing board-level responsibility for security, the NIS2 Directive updating obligations across critical sectors, and the Network Code on Cybersecurity setting common rules for cross-border electricity flows. Speakers pressed for faster implementation, better public-private cooperation and stronger supply-chain security.

Case studies highlighted live threats. Ukraine’s National Cybersecurity Coordination Center warned of the growing threat of hybrid warfare, citing repeated Russian cyberattacks on its power grid dating back to 2015. ENCS demonstrated how insecure consumer-energy devices like EV chargers, PV inverters, and home batteries can be easily exploited when security-by-design measures are absent.

Organisers closed with a call to standardise best practice, improve information sharing and coordinate operators, regulators and suppliers. As DG Energy’s Michaela Kollau noted, the resilience of Europe’s grids depends on a shared commitment to implementing current legislation and sector cybersecurity measures.

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CXMT launches LPDDR5X chips as China advances in semiconductor race

ChangXin Memory Technologies has begun mass production of LPDDR5X chips, marking a major milestone in China’s effort to strengthen its position in the global semiconductor market.

The Hefei-based manufacturer, preparing for a Shanghai stock listing, said its new DRAM generation will support faster data transfer and lower power use across mobile devices and AI systems.

The LPDDR5X range includes chips with speeds of up to 10,667 Mbps, positioning CXMT as a growing competitor to industry leaders such as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.

Earlier LPDDR5 versions launched in 2023 had already helped the firm progress towards advanced 16-nanometre manufacturing, narrowing the technological gap with global rivals.

Industry data indicate a rising global demand for memory chips, driven by AI applications and high-bandwidth computing. Additionally, DRAM revenue increased 17.1 percent in the second quarter, reaching US$31.6 billion.

CXMT’s expansion comes as it targets a Shanghai IPO valued at around 300 billion yuan, highlighting both investor interest and the ambition of China to achieve greater chip self-sufficiency.

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