The revelation of the DeepSeek large language model arguably marked the end of the first chapter of AI but also served as a reminder that in multiple industries – many of them backed by venture and PE funds – innovators are working on the technologies of the future.

In this note, we wanted to highlight some of the top technology breakthroughs – as sponsored by the private assets industry – that we think are worth focusing on.

Democratising AI

To a certain extent, the development of very capable AI models has been a resource-consuming process. However, we are now entering a new phase where more bootstrapped models can be made readily available and where arcane datasets are being employed — Mistral AI is producing Arabic models, for example. At the same time, humans are becoming better at using existing basic models in their jobs such as economists and lawyers.

An attendant experiment to note is that we may well see more attempts to use AI in government. The ambition laid out in the UK’s AI Opportunity Action Plan is a sign of things to come here.¹

Quantum

Microsoft is at the centre of two technology developments that are worth focusing on. 

The first, which might tame some exuberance around AI, is the rolling back of the tech giant’s plans to lease data centres.²

The second is the breakthrough in Microsoft’s ‘topological qubit’ project, which has succeeded in storing information in a new ‘exotic’ state of matter, according to Nature journal.³

This development will feed the acceleration of research in the quantum computing sector where, even though business use cases are some way off, we expect to see investment activity pick up. 

In Europe, Alice & Bob, a quantum design firm, has recently raised capital,⁴ and the focus is now on other large quantum players like IQM.

Guns, germs and steel

Jared Diamond’s book of this title referred to how societies advanced because of their innovation in particular technologies. 

Our take on this theme is that we will see a lot more innovation in ‘guns’, notably in the use of AI in defence with Anduril and Helsing as two prominent players in this space. Additionally, there’s an enormous buildout in defence spending in Europe⁵ and a good deal of it is driven by infrastructure and PE firms.⁶ 

We also consider that, in tandem with a rise in interest in defence-tech, there will be a resurgence of interest in security-tech,⁷ which is to say technologies in the realm of cybersecurity, identity verification and corporate intelligence.

On this broad theme, there are two other trends to note – the use of AI in biotechnology and drug discovery, of which the French firm Owkin is an example,⁸ and the emergence of environmentally friendly building materials, notably ‘green’ concrete and ‘green’ steel. One example in Europe is Stegra.⁹

Space

The space tech industry is about to come of age.¹⁰ Whilst there is a lot of public attention on companies like SpaceX, the range of smaller space firms is expanding and investor interest is becoming more fine-tuned. 

There are several sub-segments, such as rocket technology companies (Astra), companies like Varda that undertake biology and pharmaceutical experiments in space,¹¹ and a burgeoning satellite economy.

Humanoids

Like many space technologies, the idea of humanoid robots has the veneer of science fiction, but it is fast becoming reality. Tesla’s Optimus robot is one of a number of iconic machines that has shown it can interact with crowds of people. 

Improvements in dexterity and applied AI mean that the age of autonomous humanoid robots is not far off¹² and that the business use applications of this can extend to solving demographic problems, such as complementing the work of teachers, assisting in healthcare, and performing ‘hard labour’ tasks.