Today, 28.03.2026
Good morning, Human. Three seemingly unrelated stories this week share a common thread: Europe is actively redrawing the boundaries of what it controls. A Swiss semiconductor company raises $225 million to solve AI's memory bottleneck. A Dutch startup launches an office suite explicitly designed to escape American legal jurisdiction. And the European Parliament votes to build deportation infrastructure that critics say mirrors the very enforcement model Europeans have condemned across the Atlantic. The question isn't whether Europe is asserting sovereignty – it's what kind of sovereignty, and at what cost.
The Infrastructure Play
Kandou AI, a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Saint-Sulpice, Switzerland, has closed a $225 million Series A round led by Maverick Silicon, with participation from SoftBank Group, Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, and Alchip Technologies. The round values the company at $400 million – a significant milestone for a European chip company in a sector dominated by American and Asian players.
The mechanism here matters more than the headline number. Kandou AI's technology addresses what the company calls the memory wall – the bandwidth bottleneck that limits how fast AI clusters can move data between chips. Their Copper MIMO approach, branded as Chord Signaling, claims to achieve path to Shannon capacity while reducing power consumption and system costs by over 10x compared to optical solutions. The company has already shipped over 20 million silicon units using its technology.
What makes this raise notable is the investor composition. Synopsys and Cadence are the two dominant electronic design automation (EDA) companies – their participation signals potential integration into the design tools that chip architects use globally. As TAMradar reported, CEO Srujan Linga described the funding as a clear validation of our vision to redefine how data moves across AI infrastructure.
The timing aligns with a broader wave of AI interconnect investment. Ayar Labs closed a $500 million Series E in early March for optical interconnects. Eridu emerged from stealth with over $200 million for AI networking. The data center interconnect market stands at $18.73 billion in 2026, projected to reach $64.96 billion by 2035. Kandou AI's bet is that copper-based solutions can capture significant share by offering lower cost and easier integration than optics-heavy alternatives.
The Funding Picture
The week's other major deal reshapes the independent music publishing landscape. Primary Wave Music has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Kobalt from Francisco Partners, with an investment from Brookfield. While the companies did not disclose the transaction value, Billboard reported sources suggesting the deal could exceed $1.5 billion – approximately double the $750 million valuation at which Francisco Partners acquired Kobalt in 2022.
The combined entity would control assets exceeding $7 billion, according to Billboard estimates, creating what the companies describe as a scaled, independent alternative to traditional publishing models. Kobalt will remain a standalone entity under CEO Laurent Hubert, maintaining its technology-driven publishing administration platform and digital collection society AMRA.
For European observers, the deal represents a consolidation of independent music infrastructure at a moment when streaming economics continue to reshape the industry. Kobalt's most recent financial filings showed $794.4 million in revenue for the year ending June 2024. Founder Willard Ahdritz, who built the company over 25 years with a focus on transparency and creator-first principles, will step down as chairman upon closing.
The Sovereignty Situation
Europe's push for digital sovereignty took concrete form this month with the launch of Office.eu, a productivity suite explicitly positioned as a European alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The platform, which launched in The Hague on March 4, runs entirely on European data centers and is built on open-source technology – specifically Nextcloud Hub with Collabora Online for document editing.
The pitch is straightforward: keep data under European law and away from the US CLOUD Act, which allows American authorities to compel US companies to hand over data stored anywhere in the world. The Rubicon has been crossed, CEO Maarten Roelfs told Silicon Republic. American tech firms can no longer offer assurances to European companies that their data sovereignty will be protected.
The initiative isn't alone. Yesterday, IONOS and Nextcloud announced Euro-Office, a separate European open-source office suite backed by a coalition of more than a dozen organizations including XWiki, OpenProject, and OpenXchange. The project is built on ONLYOFFICE and aims to create a sustainable office suite under European stewardship.
The context is unmistakable. US cloud providers hold an 85% share of the European market, according to Synergy Research Group. CNBC reported that Estonia's minister for digital affairs, Liisa Pakosta, described digital sovereignty as a matter of national survival, not just IT policy amid heightened security threats on Europe's eastern flank. Spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure in Europe is forecast to more than triple to $23 billion by 2027, according to Gartner.
Whether these alternatives can meaningfully dent Microsoft and Google's dominance remains uncertain. Forrester senior analyst Dario Maisto told Silicon Republic that issues including lack of enterprise-grade support, feature disparities, and migration friction may limit adoption. But the political momentum is clear: all 27 EU member states signed a declaration in November stating their shared ambition to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty.
The Policy Situation
The European Parliament voted Thursday to approve the Return Regulation, a law that would enable member states to build deportation centers outside the EU, extend detention periods to up to two years, and impose entry bans on returned migrants. The vote passed 389 to 206, with the European People's Party aligning with far-right groups to secure the majority.
The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) published an analysis arguing the regulation will ICE-ify EU migration policy – a reference to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency whose practices some European political groups have condemned. The think tank notes that while some groups declared it unacceptable for ICE agents to operate on European soil during the Milan-Cortina Olympics, the same majority that passed the Return Regulation was notably silent.
The regulation allows returns to countries that agree to accept migrants based on agreements with EU member states – the so-called return hubs that critics describe as offshore detention centers. Euronews reported that the Parliament's version added a provision allowing talks with non-recognised third country entities for readmission purposes, which Green MEP Melissa Camara said gives a green light to the cooperation with the Talibans to enable the forced return of Afghan nationals.
Amnesty International's Eve Geddie called the vote part of a growing trend towards increasingly harmful, exclusionary, and draconian policies on migration. The organization stated that return hubs carry grave risks of rights violations, cannot be implemented in a human rights compliant manner, and should be rejected in full.
CEPS argues the regulation rests on a misleading premise: the oft-cited statistic that only 20% of migrants who receive return orders are actually removed. The think tank notes this figure hides more than it reveals – some individuals are counted multiple times across member states, and return orders are often issued where removal was never legally or practically feasible.
The Numbers That Matter
$225M – Kandou AI's Series A round, valuing the Swiss chip company at $400 million
$1.5B+ – Estimated value of Primary Wave's acquisition of Kobalt, creating a $7 billion combined entity
85% – US cloud providers' share of the European market, per Synergy Research Group
$23B – Projected European spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure by 2027, per Gartner
389-206 – European Parliament vote approving the Return Regulation
20% – Current rate of return order enforcement in the EU, the statistic driving the new regulation
15,000 – Early access applicants for Office.eu, per the company
The Week Ahead
Trilogue negotiations on the Return Regulation begin immediately, with the Council and Parliament expected to align quickly given minimal substantive differences between their positions. The AI Act's first enforcement deadline for prohibited practices passed in February; implementation guidance continues to roll out. Watch for Q1 earnings from major European tech companies as the quarter closes.
The Thought That Lingers
Europe is building walls this week – some digital, some physical. The Office.eu launch and the Return Regulation vote share a common impulse: the desire to control what crosses borders. One seeks to keep data in; the other seeks to push people out. Both invoke sovereignty as justification. The question that lingers is whether sovereignty is a principle or merely a tool – something Europe applies consistently, or something it deploys selectively depending on what's being kept in or out. The answer may define what kind of Europe emerges from this moment.
This conversation continues on May 19 in Vienna, where the people shaping Europe's AI future will gather in the same room. Human x AI Europe.
Human×AI Daily Brief is compiled from Bloomberg, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, CEPS, Euronews, Amnesty International, Silicon Republic, Office Watch, CNBC, and IT Brief UK. This is meant to be useful, not comprehensive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Kandou AI and why did it raise $225 million?
A: Kandou AI is a Swiss fabless semiconductor company developing high-speed, energy-efficient chip-to-chip connectivity solutions for AI infrastructure. The $225 million Series A, led by Maverick Silicon with participation from SoftBank and major EDA companies, will fund production ramp-up and partnerships with hyperscale data centers. The company's Copper MIMO technology addresses memory bandwidth bottlenecks in AI clusters.
Q: What is Office.eu and how does it differ from Microsoft 365?
A: Office.eu is a 100% European-owned productivity suite launched in The Hague that runs entirely on European data centers. Unlike Microsoft 365, it is not subject to the US CLOUD Act, which allows American authorities to compel US companies to hand over data stored anywhere in the world. The platform is built on open-source technology including Nextcloud Hub and Collabora Online.
Q: What does the EU Return Regulation allow?
A: The regulation enables EU member states to build deportation centers outside the EU, extends maximum detention periods to 24 months, and allows returns to third countries unrelated to migrants' origin based on bilateral agreements. It passed the European Parliament on March 26, 2026, with a 389-206 vote.
Q: How much is Kobalt being sold for?
A: While the companies did not disclose the transaction value, Billboard reported sources suggesting the deal could exceed $1.5 billion. This would represent approximately double the $750 million valuation at which Francisco Partners acquired Kobalt in 2022. The combined Primary Wave-Kobalt entity would control assets exceeding $7 billion.
Q: What is the US CLOUD Act and why does it matter for European businesses?
A: The US CLOUD Act allows American law enforcement to compel US-based technology companies to hand over data stored on their servers regardless of where that data is physically located – including on European servers. This creates tension with EU data protection frameworks and has driven demand for European-owned alternatives.
Q: When will the EU Return Regulation take effect?
A: Trilogue negotiations between the Parliament and Council begin immediately following the March 26 vote. Given minimal substantive differences between the two positions, negotiations are expected to advance quickly. The regulation would require member states to recognize and enforce return decisions across the Schengen area by July 1, 2027.