Brussels spent the week deciding where to pay and where to second-guess. It cleared EUR 319 million for a fab in Austria, and it asked Sweden to justify how it regulates fibre.
Outside the institutions, the money was small and specialised. Two European venture funds closed rounds for AI, robotics and cybersecurity, and Britain rewrote its tax deal for founders.
Policy & Regulation
Brussels clears EUR 319 million for the EU's first 300 mm gallium nitride fab
On 27 October the Commission approved a EUR 319 million direct grant to Infineon Technologies Austria for its Villach site in Carinthia. The "Empowering Fab" project moves power gallium nitride chips from 200 mm to 300 mm wafers, which the Commission says no EU plant can do today.
The aid passed under the Treaty's general state aid test and the principles of the Chips Act, after a proven funding gap. Infineon commits to work with start-ups, universities and research institutes, to train skills, and to share any excess project profit with Austria.
The profit-sharing clause is the mechanism to watch. It is how Brussels tries to keep a large subsidy from becoming a pure transfer.
Brussels opens a deep review of Sweden's fibre rules
On 29 October the Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the Swedish regulator PTS's draft market analysis. PTS wants to treat each local fibre network as its own market and regulate only houses, not apartment blocks.
It would target 63 local markets with more than 5,000 house connections.
The Commission doubts that a fixed 5,000-connection line is a sound test for market power. It also doubts that the same remedies fit every operator.
PTS argues that households on a single local network have little choice and weak bargaining power, in a country where fibre reached 85.62% of homes in 2025. The Commission blocked a plan to regulate Telia in 2019, citing the many separate networks, so the case tests whether local monopolies count as markets.
PTS cannot adopt its measures while the review runs. The Commission also nudges it to use EU rules on access to in-building wiring in apartment blocks.
Capital & Investment
Britain swaps one founder tax relief for another
The 28 October Budget introduces a Founders' Relief, a 10% capital gains rate on up to GBP 10 million of lifetime gains for founders of innovative, high-growth companies. The detailed rules are not yet published, and the consultation points to minimum shareholding, a genuine role in building the business, and a minimum holding period.
The same package cuts the lifetime limit on Business Asset Disposal Relief from GBP 1 million to GBP 500,000 from 6 April 2027. That halves the maximum saving on that older relief to about GBP 30,000.
Alex Depledge, the Treasury's entrepreneurship adviser, left the day after the Budget, having said ministers saw scale-ups as a sideshow. The relief is a concrete answer to her complaint, though the definition of "high-growth" will decide who actually gets it.
Entourage closes a EUR 100 million second fund
Entourage hit its EUR 75 million target within two weeks and capped the fund at EUR 100 million. It will write EUR 1 to 5 million first cheques into about 25 pre-seed and seed companies, now weighted to AI, robotics, physical AI and deeptech rather than software.
Fund I backed Aikido Security, which is now a unicorn. The article does not name the limited partners, so it is unclear whether public money such as the EIF is in the fund.
The firm has opened a London office and has a presence in Paris. Early-stage capital is still being raised in Europe at this size, but the sources of it stay opaque.
(Tech.eu)
Auriga Partners raises EUR 80 million for a second cybersecurity fund
The French firm has an interim close of EUR 80 million for Auriga Cyber Ventures II, against a EUR 100 million target and a EUR 120 million hard cap. The first fund, at EUR 55 million, launched in 2022 and backed 30 European cybersecurity companies, with 32% exposure to defence.
The new fund targets about 30 start-ups in AI security, identity protection and data security. Half the capital is reserved for follow-on rounds.
Its managing partners frame the fund as a sovereignty bet. Its first four deals include Mankinds, which audits AI systems for compliance, and Nextident, which secures AI agents.
(Tech.eu)
One to Watch
A voluntary DSA code of conduct on scams
The Commission is consulting on a voluntary code under Article 45 of the Digital Services Act that would link banks and online platforms. It would cover shared signals on scam content, checks on financial advertisers, and closer work with trusted flaggers.
Civil society met on 26 October, banks and payments firms on 23 October, and the large platforms follow in early November.
Results go to the European Board for Digital Services and the Payment Systems Market Expert Group, with DG CONNECT and DG FISMA leading. The Commission says one in four people in the EU has fallen victim to online fraud.
The code would build on the forthcoming Payment Services Regulation. It also sits beside last week's formal DSA case against Booking.com over scams.