Spotify’s Daniel Ek Leads €600 Million Funding Round For Defense Startup Helsing - 1

Photo courtesy of Helsing

Spotify’s Daniel Ek Leads €600 Million Funding Round For Defense Startup Helsing

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, is leading a €600 million investment round in the German defense startup Helsing. The new investment makes Helsing one of the most valuable startups in Europe.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Daniel Ek is leading a €600 million funding round in Helsing, a German defense AI startup.
  • Helsing has now raised €1.37 billion and is valued at €12 billion.
  • The defense startup expects to shift from AI software to producing drones, submarines, and aircraft.

According to the Financial Times , the German unicorn is transitioning from developing only AI technologies for defense to building its own drones, submarines, and aircraft.

Ek, the Swedish entrepreneur who is also developing and expanding his latest startup Neko Health , is betting on Helsing through his investment company Prima Materia—founded in 2020—for the second time.

Prima Materia invested in Helsing in 2021 and is now “doubling down” to help the defense company expand its product portfolio. Other investors, such as Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Ventures, and Plural, also participated in the funding round.

The four-year-old company has now raised a total of €1.37 billion and has been valued at €12 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Ek explained that current conflicts—such as the war between Russia and Ukraine—have heightened awareness and accelerated the need for AI-powered military systems, which are being deployed at scale for the first time.

“There’s an enormous realization that it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield,” said Ek to the Financial Times. “We can’t understate the implications of that for this conflict [in Ukraine] or really any conflict going forward.”

Helsing has already sold thousands of drones fabricated in Germany to Ukraine and has established partnerships with Sweden, the UK, and Germany— and the Swedish defence group Saab.

The company has not disclosed how it plans to use the new funding.

Helsing is not the only tech company partnering with governments to provide advanced AI technologies this week. On Monday, the U.S. Defense Department awarded OpenAI a $200 million contract to develop AI technologies for national security.

OpenAI Wins $200 Million US Defense Contract - 2

Photo by Diego González on Unsplash

OpenAI Wins $200 Million US Defense Contract

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The U.S. Defense Department awarded OpenAI a $200 million contract on Monday to develop artificial intelligence technologies for national security. The one-year deal will be carried out primarily in Washington and is expected to continue through July 2026.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • The U.S. Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a one-year, $200 million contract.
  • The project will address critical national security challenges across both warfighting and enterprise domains.
  • OpenAI will include this agreement under its new initiative, OpenAI for Government.

According to the recent Contracts announcement published by the U.S. Department of Defense, with the new funding, OpenAI will research, develop, test, and evaluate technologies to address national security concerns. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO).

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” states the document.

OpenAI said that the new agreement falls under its latest initiative, OpenAI for Government, alongside other partnerships and projects—such as ChatGPT Gov⁠—with government entities including the U.S. National Labs, Treasury, NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“We’re supporting the U.S. government’s efforts in adopting best-in-class technology and deploying these tools in service of the public good,” said OpenAI in an announcement shared on Monday.

The tech giant explained it expects to bring solutions and help workers by developing the most advanced technology and its AI tools to “serve the American people.” The new deal with the CDAO will focus on supporting U.S. defense, considering OpenAI’s policies and guidelines.

“This contract, with a $200 million ceiling, will bring OpenAI’s industry-leading expertise to help the Defense Department identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations, from improving how service members and their families get health care, to streamlining how they look at program and acquisition data, to supporting proactive cyber defense,” said OpenAI.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Gov , a specialized version of its chatbot specially designed to meet the U.S. government agencies’ needs, in January.