NATO targets AI, robots and space tech in $1.1 billion fund

18/6/2024 12:07

        A consortium of NATO allies has confirmed the first tranche of companies awarded funding as part of the group’s one billion euro ($1.1 billion) innovation fund.
        
        The alliance unveiled the fund in the summer of 2022, months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, promising to invest in technologies that would enhance its defences. The fund is backed by 24 of NATO's 32 member states, including Finland and Sweden, which joined the alliance earlier this year.
        
        On Tuesday, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) confirmed it had directly invested in four European tech companies, which it said would help address challenges in defence, security, and resilience.
        
        The body has allocated funding to Fractile AI, a London-based computer chipmaker aiming to make large language models (LLMs) like those that power ChatGPT run faster, as well as Germany's ARX Robotics, which designs unmanned robots with functions ranging from heavy-lifting to surveillance.
        
        The other two startups were British manufacturer iCOMAT and Space Forge, a Welsh company that harnesses the conditions of space to build semiconductors in-orbit.