Finland’s Nestai Lands €100m, Partners With Nokia To Build Ai For Defense Applications

Finnish startup NestAI has raised €100 cardinal (about $115 million) successful a backing information led by Finland’s sovereign fund, Tesi, and hardware elephantine Nokia to build AI products for usage successful unmanned vehicles, autonomous operations, and bid and power platforms.

NestAI has besides struck a partnership pinch Nokia to build AI products for defense applications and create “physical AI,” which involves utilizing ample connection models and related exertion for robotics and different real-world applications.

The backing will thief NestAI build “Europe’s starring beingness AI lab,” co-founder Peter Sarlin said astatine nan Slush 2025 exertion convention successful Helsinki. 

Physical AI has been a increasing investigation section some for Big Tech and startups, and NestAI’s backing information shows there’s abstraction for European companies to create homegrown solutions to reside nan continent’s needs — which person leaned towards defense applications owed to prolonged Ukraine-Russia war. Last month, nan startup announced it would support nan Finnish Defense Forces successful adopting AI.

This attraction connected sovereignty whitethorn explicate why NestAI has been successful stealth truthful far, but it is now building successful public, supported by Sarlin, who has been backing nan task for nan past fewer months done his family office, PostScriptum.

“In statement pinch PostScriptum’s mission, NestAI has from nan commencement group retired to go Europe’s starring beingness AI laboratory to thrust technological sovereignty,” Sarlin told TechCrunch. “This business besides marks an important measurement successful securing Europe’s defense capabilities and sovereignty.”

After trading AI startup Silo AI to AMD for $665 million past year, Sarlin has been progressive arsenic a philanthropist and investor, backing startups for illustration Legora and Lovable. While he’s building NestAI, his time occupation is still astatine AMD, and he will only enactment arsenic nan startup’s chairman, not its CEO.

NestAI doesn’t person a CEO yet, but its increasing squad has attracted talent pinch acquisition successful AI investigation and hardware projects that overlap pinch defense. A important number of its unit formerly worked for Intel, while others were formerly employed by nan likes of Kongsberg, Palantir and Saab.