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▶ 16:14 · AI Infrastructure · Google and Microsoft hold structural AI advantage via cash, data center optionality, and proprietary data
episode briefing
Scaling Europe

Angel money is coming back to European tech: Nick de la Forge, Co-Founder / GP at Planet A Ventures

2026-04-02 · 6 company · 11 thematic
sentiment
4 bull2 bear0 neu
speakers
nick de la forge

Industrial engineer turned deep tech investor; co-founded Planet A Ventures in 2020, a €160M early-stage fund using life cycle assessments to back companies operating within planetary boundaries, focusing on energy, manufacturing, circular economy, and critical infrastructure.

now playing · AI Infrastructure
Advanced Manufacturingmixedscore 7/10nick de la forge
European manufacturing renaissance driven by sovereignty needs, but rebound effects require selective investment
Europe's push to reshore critical supply chains (per Draghi plan) creates manufacturing investment opportunities, but investors must avoid rebound effects where efficiency gains merely incr…
Energy & Power Generationtailwindscore 9/10nick de la forge
AI infrastructure race shifts from chips to energy access, driving power generation investment
The bottleneck for AI scaling has moved from chip supply to energy availability, making investments in energy storage, geothermal, virtual power plants, fusion, and fission critical for AI…
Robotics & Physical AItailwindscore 7/10nick de la forge
Labor costs to follow energy toward zero via AI and robotics automation
Parallel to energy cost declines, labor costs will drop dramatically through AI and robotics, enabling Europe to overcome resource constraints through automation and biomanufacturing.
Energy & Power Generationtailwindscore 7/10nick de la forge
Energy costs projected to approach zero over 20-25 years, reshaping industrial economics
Planet A's core thesis expects energy costs to decline toward zero over the next two decades, fundamentally changing manufacturing, compute, and resource economics in Europe's favor.
Advanced Manufacturingtailwindscore 7/10nick de la forge
Europe's resource scarcity drives investment in recycling, material synthesis, and biomanufacturing
As a resource-poor continent, Europe must master circular economy technologies—recycling, material synthesis, bioeconomy, biomanufacturing—to sustain industrial output within planetary boun…
AI Economics & Business Modelsmixedscore 7/10nick de la forge
Revenue quality of hypergrowth AI companies to be tested in 2025 as valuations decouple from fundamentals
The venture market is split between AI companies achieving zero-to-$100M in years at 5x step-up valuations and traditional venture logic; 2025 will reveal whether AI revenue is sustainable…
AI Infrastructuretailwindscore 8/10nick de la forge
Google and Microsoft hold structural AI advantage via cash, data center optionality, and proprietary data
Hyperscalers Google and Microsoft are best positioned to win the AI race long-term because they combine deep cash reserves, ability to repurpose data centers for other workloads, and exclus…
Venture Capitaltailwindscore 7/10nick de la forge
Angel capital returning to UK, Nordics, Munich, Zurich as European tech flywheels accelerate
Early-stage European ecosystems in UK, Sweden, Nordics, Munich, and Zurich are seeing angel money return and better company building, though corporate incumbents lag in urgency compared to…
Robotics & Physical AItailwindscore 8/10nick de la forge
Humanoid robots to reach consumer households in 2026 as robotics investment accelerates
Robotics investment momentum from 2025 will continue into 2026, with humanoid robots becoming commercially available for households, potentially from multiple Magnificent Seven companies be…
Space Economytailwindscore 8/10nick de la forge
Starship launch cost collapse to catalyze space tech innovation wave
SpaceX's Starship dramatically reducing launch costs acts as a 'space elevator,' making space accessible and kickstarting a broad wave of space tech innovation.
AI Applicationstailwindscore 8/10nick de la forge
AI application moats depend on proprietary data access, not speed or ideas, as most data remains offline
The vast majority of valuable data has never been on the internet or seen by models; the real AI winners will be those who can access and train on this offline proprietary data, not those w…