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EPO highlights Europe’s growing quantum innovation ecosystem

The European Patent Office (EPO) highlighted Europe’s growing quantum and AI innovation ecosystem during Servus Scale Up 2026 in Munich, pointing to rapid growth in quantum patenting and new initiatives to help startups commercialise deep-tech innovation.

The event brought together around 200 French and Bavarian startups, investors, researchers, technology transfer experts and policymakers to strengthen cross-border cooperation and support deep-tech entrepreneurship in strategically important technologies.

EPO Vice President Christoph Ernst said quantum patenting in Europe has increased fivefold over the past decade. According to recent EPO findings, annual growth has averaged around 20%, significantly outpacing overall patent growth.

Europe’s share of international patent families in quantum technologies also increased from 19% to 25%, reinforcing the continent’s position in one of the world’s fastest-growing technology fields.

The EPO also showcased initiatives designed to support innovators and investors. Its Deep Tech Finder now includes nearly 150 European quantum startups.

Other initiatives, including the EPO Observatory on Patents and Technology, the joint OECD study on quantum technologies, the Quantum Technology Platform and the recently launched EPO Data Desk, provide patent intelligence, market insights and analytical tools to help identify emerging opportunities and support investment decisions.

The EPO noted that although Europe has a strong research and innovation base in quantum technologies, access to funding remains more limited than in the United States. By combining patent data with market intelligence, the Office aims to help startups scale, attract investment and strengthen Europe’s long-term competitiveness in quantum technologies and AI.

Why does it matter?

Quantum technologies are expected to play an increasingly important role in fields ranging from cybersecurity and communications to healthcare and advanced computing. Strong patent activity suggests Europe remains competitive in research, but commercial success will also depend on access to investment and the ability to scale innovative companies.

By combining patent intelligence with tools for investors and startups, the EPO is seeking to strengthen Europe’s deep-tech ecosystem and improve the commercialisation of emerging technologies. This reflects a broader European effort to translate scientific leadership into long-term industrial competitiveness.

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South Korea prioritises AI and semiconductor investment in the 2027 budget

South Korea plans to introduce a record national budget exceeding KRW 800 trillion (around €500 billion) in 2027, with semiconductors, AI and youth employment at the centre of its investment strategy.

Announced during the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting, the proposed budget would increase by more than 10% compared with 2026, reflecting the government’s focus on strengthening industrial competitiveness, technological leadership and long-term economic growth.

A significant share of the funding will support three flagship initiatives focused on semiconductors, AI data centres and physical AI technologies.

The government also plans to accelerate the development of Yongin and the Honam region as major semiconductor manufacturing hubs through administrative measures including fast-track licensing and exemptions from preliminary feasibility studies for strategic projects.

Beyond industrial policy, the budget includes measures aimed at supporting citizens directly. A new Future Response Fund will finance the training of 200,000 young professionals, help create around 300,000 jobs and improve housing stability.

South Korea also plans to expand employment insurance and workers’ compensation coverage for platform workers while establishing a new K-Labour Council to strengthen labour protections.

To address fiscal sustainability, the government announced a comprehensive review of public spending aimed at generating around KRW 50 trillion in efficiency savings, described as the largest restructuring of government expenditure in the country’s history.

According to the government, the combination of strategic investment and spending reforms is intended to promote innovation while maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability.

Why does it matter?

The budget demonstrates how industrial policy is becoming a central tool for strengthening technological competitiveness. By prioritising semiconductors, AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, South Korea is seeking to reinforce its position in sectors that are increasingly viewed as critical to economic growth and national security.

The package also shows that governments are increasingly pairing technology investment with workforce development and labour reforms. Building AI and semiconductor capacity will require not only infrastructure and capital but also a skilled workforce capable of supporting long-term innovation.

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European Commission approves €659 million for four German chip projects

The European Commission has approved €659 million in German State aid to support the construction of four first-of-a-kind semiconductor manufacturing facilities, strengthening Europe’s chip supply chain and advancing the objectives of the European Chips Act and the proposed Chips Act 2.0.

The projects aim to expand manufacturing capacity across several strategic segments of the semiconductor value chain while reducing the EU’s dependence on external suppliers.

The approved funding will support four companies across Germany.

Element 3-5 will receive €353 million to manufacture advanced silicon carbide epi wafers in North Rhine-Westphalia, while Vishay will receive €214 million to produce next-generation power MOSFET semiconductors in Schleswig-Holstein.

KLA will receive €74.4 million to manufacture advanced semiconductor metrology equipment in Hesse, and KETEK will receive €17.9 million to establish new production lines for specialised detector chips in Bavaria. The projects are jointly financed by the German federal government and regional authorities.

The Commission concluded that all four facilities qualify as first-of-a-kind manufacturing projects in Europe and are necessary to strengthen the resilience of the European semiconductor ecosystem.

In return for the public support, the companies committed to collaborating with universities, research institutions, startups and SMEs, prioritising customer orders during supply shortages, investing in specialised workforce training and sharing project-related profits with Germany if returns exceed agreed expectations.

The decision forms part of the EU’s broader semiconductor strategy. The Commission noted that the approvals represent the fifteenth to eighteenth projects authorised under the European Chips Act, bringing total approved public support across Member States to around €14.2 billion.

The projects also complement the proposed Chips Act 2.0, which aims to further expand Europe’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity and reduce strategic technological dependencies.

Why does it matter?

Semiconductors underpin nearly every modern digital technology, from AI and electric vehicles to telecommunications and industrial automation. Expanding Europe’s domestic manufacturing capacity strengthens supply chain resilience, supports technological sovereignty and reinforces the EU’s competitiveness in one of the world’s most strategic industries.

The decision also demonstrates how the EU is increasingly using State aid to accelerate investment in strategically important technologies. By supporting first-of-a-kind manufacturing facilities, the Commission aims to strengthen Europe’s long-term industrial resilience while reducing reliance on overseas semiconductor production.

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South Korea expands blockchain strategy with stablecoin plans

South Korea is keeping blockchain and digital assets on its policy agenda for the second half of 2026, alongside much larger investments in AI and semiconductors.

The government’s plans include work on stablecoin legislation, tokenised financial infrastructure and blockchain-based public-sector pilots.

Authorities are expected to move forward with the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, which would create a broader legal framework for digital asset businesses and Korean won-backed stablecoins.

The government has also considered rules for cross-border stablecoin transactions and amendments that could support the introduction of spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds.

Blockchain adoption is also being tested in public finance. South Korea plans to pilot tokenised government bonds linked to the Bank of Korea’s institutional central bank digital currency project in 2027.

The Bank of Korea is also expected to examine interoperability between its institutional CBDC system and other blockchain networks.

At the local level, Gyeonggi Province is preparing a stablecoin pilot to test government payments, settlement and fraud-prevention technologies.

The plans show that blockchain remains part of South Korea’s digital strategy, even as AI, semiconductors and data-centre infrastructure dominate the country’s broader technology investment agenda.

Why does it matter?

South Korea’s roadmap shows that blockchain policy is moving beyond exchange regulation towards stablecoins, tokenised public finance and institutional digital-asset infrastructure. Clearer rules for won-backed stablecoins and crypto ETFs could increase legal certainty and institutional participation. At the same time, the focus on tokenised government bonds and CBDC interoperability suggests South Korea is exploring how blockchain could fit into public financial infrastructure, not only private crypto markets.

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Japan reviews legal protection for AI voice imitation

Japan’s Justice Ministry has prepared a draft report on civil liability for the unauthorised use of people’s voices and images through generative AI.

The draft focuses on the protection of famous individuals, including celebrities, singers and voice actors, as AI tools make it easier to imitate real voices and appearances.

It was submitted to an expert committee on 13 July, with a final report expected as early as August.

The ministry said the report could serve as a reference in lawsuits and AI development, as Japanese courts have not yet issued clear rulings on rights related specifically to voice imitation.

One scenario examined in the draft involves AI-generated audio that could mislead the public into believing a voice actor had read obscene material online for profit.

The draft says such use could be illegal if it harms a person’s dignity, honour or peace of mind beyond a tolerable limit.

It also outlines criteria for assessing whether an AI-generated voice is similar to that of a famous person and whether it may infringe publicity rights.

At the same time, the draft suggests that parody, impersonation and artistic mimicry would generally not infringe publicity rights when they are presented as expressive acts based on resemblance.

The review comes amid growing concern in Japan over AI covers and the unauthorised use of singers’ and voice actors’ voices in synthetic performances.

Why does it matter?

Japan’s draft report shows how generative AI is forcing legal systems to revisit personality, publicity and dignity protections. Voice imitation is especially sensitive because it can affect reputation, commercial value and personal autonomy even when no copyrighted recording is copied. The Japanese approach could influence how courts and AI developers assess consent, similarity, commercial use and harm in cases involving synthetic voices, AI covers and celebrity likenesses.

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OpenAI brings ChatGPT back to WhatsApp across the EEA

OpenAI has restored ChatGPT on WhatsApp across the European Economic Area (EEA), allowing users to access the chatbot through the verified 1-800-CHATGPT contact number.

Users can start chatting by messaging +1-800-242-8478 on WhatsApp without creating or linking a ChatGPT account. Availability is determined by the country code associated with the user’s WhatsApp number and may roll out gradually across the region.

ChatGPT on WhatsApp supports text conversations in multiple languages, image uploads, voice notes, and image generation. Users who link their ChatGPT accounts receive higher usage limits, though linking remains optional.

Usage limits, and OpenAI says the service is intended for users aged 13 and over. As with other ChatGPT products, the company warns that responses may contain mistakes.

The launch expands OpenAI’s presence of messaging platforms, following ChatGPT integrations with Kakao in South Korea and Viber in supported markets.

Why does it matter?

The return of ChatGPT on WhatsApp makes generative AI more accessible by bringing it into one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms. Users can interact with the chatbot without downloading a dedicated app or creating an account, lowering barriers to adoption.

The rollout also reflects a broader trend towards embedding AI assistants within familiar communication platforms rather than requiring users to switch between separate applications. As messaging services become gateways to AI, they are increasingly evolving into everyday productivity and information tools.

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Google open-sources k8s-aibom to detect shadow AI

Google has open-sourced k8s-aibom, a lightweight Kubernetes controller designed to detect unregistered AI workloads and generate standardised inventories of the AI models, runtimes and frameworks operating inside a cluster.

The tool targets shadow AI: workloads deployed by developers without formal registration or integration with an organisation’s security and governance systems. Such deployments can evade conventional security scanners, particularly where organisations avoid privileged agents, kernel-level access or manual changes to Kubernetes workloads.

Google says k8s-aibom addresses that gap by continuously monitoring Kubernetes APIs and container environments. It detects running AI components and generates CycloneDX 1.6 Machine Learning Bills of Materials (ML-BOMs) based on what is actually executing, rather than what was intended during the build process.

The controller runs as a single unprivileged deployment in the k8s-aibom-system namespace. It does not require sidecars, eBPF modules, privileged DaemonSets or modifications to developers’ continuous integration and deployment pipelines.

The controller monitors KServe resources, deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets and jobs across a cluster. It then analyses container images, environment variables and command-line arguments to identify different categories of AI workloads.

Supported systems include inference runtimes such as vLLM, Triton Inference Server, TGI, and Ollama; agent frameworks including LangChain, AutoGen, and CrewAI; retrieval and vector database tools such as Milvus, Qdrant, and pgvector; and distributed training and evaluation workloads.

Once identified, the components are compiled into CycloneDX ML-BOM documents. These records can be stored as Kubernetes custom resources or exported to destinations including Google Cloud Storage and webhook endpoints.

Google also designed the tool to produce identical ML-BOM documents when given identical cluster inputs. This deterministic behaviour is intended to support GitOps workflows, allowing security and reliability teams to compare records and identify changes when AI dependencies drift.

Unlike build-time scanners, which document what organisations intended to deploy, k8s-aibom observes live clusters to identify which AI systems are actually running, how they are connected and how those findings were established.

A confidence model separates detected components into three categories. Declared assets are explicitly specified in workload configurations, inferred assets are identified through runtime patterns, and unresolved assets indicate that an AI presence was detected but the precise model, version, or weights could not be established.

Unresolved findings can therefore be prioritised for further security review, while declared and inferred classifications help auditors distinguish documented engineering intent from conclusions reached by the controller.

Google says the controller follows least-privilege principles and can export records using a dedicated identity with permission to create objects in Cloud Storage. Creation preconditions can prevent existing ML-BOM records from being silently overwritten, strengthening the historical evidence available to security and compliance teams.

Google also positions k8s-aibom as a tool for regulatory and standards compliance. Runtime inventories could help organisations gather evidence relevant to the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO/IEC 42001 requirements for AI asset management.

Why does it matter?

Shadow AI has become a growing governance challenge as developers deploy AI tools outside formal security and compliance processes. Without visibility into what is actually running in production, organisations may struggle to assess risk, investigate incidents or demonstrate regulatory compliance.

By generating inventories of live AI workloads rather than relying solely on build-time records, k8s-aibom could help organisations improve AI governance while supporting audits, security operations and compliance with emerging AI standards and regulations.

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Belarus introduces new compliance rules for crypto banks

Belarus has introduced prudential rules for crypto banks under a new National Bank resolution. Board Resolution No. 167, adopted on 10 July 2026, sets out how crypto banks must comply with prudential requirements after being added to the National Bank’s official crypto-bank register.

The rules implement provisions of Presidential Decree No. 19 on crypto banks and control in the sphere of digital tokens.
The framework defines the minimum banking operations that crypto banks may carry out.

These include opening and maintaining accounts for non-residents, individual entrepreneurs, legal entities, and correspondent banks; foreign-exchange and settlement operations; accepting funds into accounts; and providing cash settlement services.

The list is not closed, and the National Bank may authorise additional operations when a crypto bank is included in the register.
The resolution applies most prudential requirements for banks and non-bank credit and financial institutions to crypto banks, with adjustments depending on the operations they perform.

It sets a minimum regulatory capital requirement of 30 million Belarusian rubles and a leverage ratio of 7%. For crypto banks authorised to place attracted funds on repayment, payment and maturity terms, the thresholds rise to at least 60 million rubles and a leverage ratio of at least 3%.

The rules also define categories of digital tokens, including corporate tokens, tokenised assets, stable cryptocurrencies and other tokens.

Crypto banks will need to account for token-related claims and obligations when calculating prudential ratios, including limits on foreign-exchange risk and additional limits for positions in unreliable tokens.

The resolution also introduces prudential reporting obligations and enters into force on 18 July 2026.

Why does it matter?

Belarus’ new rules show how crypto-related banking is being drawn into prudential supervision, with capital, leverage, reporting and token-risk requirements applied to institutions that handle digital-asset services. The framework could give crypto banks a cleaner legal operating environment, while allowing the National Bank to manage risks linked to liquidity, customer funds, foreign-exchange exposure and unstable tokens.

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Meta expands Louisiana AI data centre with $50 billion investment

Meta has announced plans to expand its data centre in Richland Parish, Louisiana, increasing the site’s AI computing capacity to 5 GW as part of the company’s broader investment in AI infrastructure. Meta said the expansion represents an investment of more than $50 billion and will support more than 1,000 permanent jobs once the facility becomes operational.

According to Meta, the project includes more than $1 billion in local infrastructure improvements, covering roads, water and wastewater systems. The company also said it has awarded more than $1.6 billion in contracts to Louisiana businesses since construction began in 2024.

The project also includes workforce development initiatives. Meta has committed $5 million to Louisiana Delta Community College for scholarships and training programmes related to data centre employment, while continuing to support local schools, businesses and community initiatives through grants and skills programmes.

Meta said the expanded campus forms part of its wider investment in AI infrastructure across the United States as demand for computing capacity continues to grow.

Why does it matter?

The expansion reflects the rapid growth in demand for AI computing infrastructure as technology companies invest heavily in data centres capable of training and running increasingly advanced AI models. Access to large-scale computing power is becoming a key competitive advantage in the AI industry.

The project also illustrates the broader economic impact of AI infrastructure investments. Beyond computing capacity, hyperscale data centres require significant spending on energy, water, transport and workforce development, making them increasingly important drivers of regional economic development.

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Eurobarometer finds strong support for protecting children online

A new Eurobarometer survey released by the European Commission shows that Europeans are overwhelmingly concerned about the risks children face online, with cyberbullying, online grooming and harmful content ranking among their biggest worries.

The Flash Eurobarometer 584 survey, conducted between 19 and 24 June 2026 among 25,904 people across all 27 EU Member States, found that 71% of respondents were concerned about cyberbullying and online harassment. Online grooming and sexual exploitation worried 70%, while 69% cited exposure to harmful content such as violence, self-harm and extremism, as well as misuse of children’s personal data.

The survey also highlighted concerns about children’s online habits. Adolescents spend an average of 4.5 hours online on school days and 6.1 hours at weekends, while 14% reported spending more than 10 hours a day on screens.

The findings come as the European Commission prepares new child safety proposals. The Special Panel on Child Safety Online, which met between March and June 2026, will present its recommendations to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 13 July. The panel drew on expertise in health, neuroscience, psychology, child rights and digital literacy, with its recommendations expected to inform future EU action.

The European Commission plans to present policy proposals after the summer. The survey also found broader public concern about online risks, with 87% of respondents agreeing that disinformation, foreign interference and AI-generated content threaten democratic processes in the EU.

Why does it matter?

The survey provides strong public backing for stricter EU measures to protect children online. As policymakers consider stronger age assurance, safer platform design and enhanced protections for minors, the findings suggest there is broad public support for more robust regulation of digital services.

The results also reinforce the growing view that online safety is no longer only a technology issue but a public health and child protection challenge. Concerns about cyberbullying, harmful content and excessive screen time are increasingly shaping debates on platform accountability across Europe.

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