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European defence startups attract AI engineers

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War in Ukraine reduces stigma around defence industry

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Higher European defence budgets should support investment

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Zeki talent database shows sustained growth despite lower

pay

By Supantha Mukherjee, Michael Kahn, Elizabeth Howcroft

STOCKHOLM/PRAGUE/PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - Some

European tech workers who might once have headed to the United

States are looking at defence startups closer to home. Others

are rushing back to Europe from jobs abroad.

A sense of patriotism stirred by the war in Ukraine and U.S.

President Donald Trump's upending of security alliances is a

motivation for many, as well as the opportunity to make money as

European governments boost military spending.

For others, it's the appeal of working on cutting-edge

battlefield applications that use artificial intelligence.

Reuters spoke to two dozen AI engineers, venture capital

firms, government officials and defence companies in Europe who

said the influx of tech talent reflected a changed political

landscape as the United States retreats from its post-World War

Two role as guarantor of Europe's defences.

"There are people that are really mission-focused, and what

they want to do in their life is to have an impact and not only

earn a big salary," said Loïc Mougeolle, CEO of Paris-based

battlefield AI provider Comand AI.

"They're really motivated to have an impact rebuilding

Europe and change the course of history for Europe."

There are longstanding ethical concerns about the use of AI in

battlefield contexts. But the technology appeals to investors:

Comand AI raised $10 million in a December funding round, while

Germany's Alpine Eagle, which focuses on technology to counter

autonomous drones, raised 10 million euros ($11.4 million) in

March.

Amid intense competition for AI talent, Mougeolle said

Comand AI has recruited engineers and product managers from

U.S.-based ChatGPT maker OpenAI and data analytics provider

Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ).

Alpine Eagle plans to hire across product, engineering,

business development and sales as it looks to expand outside

Germany. "Europe, in terms of defence and also public security,

is a huge market," CEO Jan-Hendrik Boelens told Reuters.

Salaries in Europe can be significantly lower than in the

United States: Glassdoor data shows Helsing - Europe's only

defence "unicorn", valued at over $1 billion - pays up to

$150,000 per year for an AI engineer, compared with $270,000 at

Palantir ( PLTR ) or $380,000 at Google.

Helsing declined to comment for this story.

As well as poaching experienced talent, companies like

Comand AI, Helsing and Alpine Eagle are recruiting new

graduates.

Stelios Koroneos, founder of variene.ai, a Greek defence

tech startup, said the war in Ukraine had reduced the stigma

around working in defence for many young engineers.

"Young people started realizing freedom does not come for

free," Koroneos said. "You need to be able to defend yourselves.

Some do it with guns and others do it with the knowledge they

have and the things they build."

Julian Dierkes, a 27-year old doctoral student at Germany's

RWTH Aachen University, researches reinforcement learning, which

trains software to make autonomous decisions to achieve optimal

results and has broad applications for defence.

"For me it is important if I do research in defence that I

am protecting European democracies," he told Reuters.

STARTUPS SURGE

Defence startups have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in

February 2022, and technology - particularly drones - has helped

keep Kyiv in the fight. PitchBook data shows venture capital

investment in European defence companies reached $626 million in

2024, up from $254 million in 2023 and $62 million in 2022.

And Europe's rearmament plans promise more: the European

Union aims to mobilise 800 billion euros ($911 billion) for

defence while countries like Germany have pledged massive

increases in their defence budgets.

According to the Zeki State of AI Talent Report, European

defence companies are targeting top engineers as even

established firms shift focus from hardware to software for

everything from drones to troop-tracking technology.

Its analysis, based on a dataset of 800,000 people, found

the number of top AI engineers in Europe's defence sector based

on published research soared to 1,700 in 2024 from 144 in 2014.

Comparable U.S. roles grew to 6,927 from 487 over the same

period, according to Zeki data.

Zeki defined top talent as engineers with a proven track

record of breaking new ground in AI discovery such as published

research.

"We believe this represents significant and sustained growth

in the sector," Zeki's chief executive Tom Hurd told Reuters.

Investors, tech workers and recruiters said unease with the

current U.S. political environment was prompting some Europeans

to seek opportunities at home. Deep cuts to funding for

universities and research bodies by Trump's administration have

prompted scientists in other disciplines to consider moving to

Europe.

"Many of the world's top AI researchers come from Europe.

Some went to the U.S., but many are returning to work on

European sovereignty, resilience, and long-term value

creation," said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director at

U.S. venture capital firm General Catalyst in Berlin.

"I think that's a powerful signal."

MORE THAN MONEY

Benjamin Wolba last year co-founded the European Defense

Tech Hub, which aims to connect tech founders, investors and

policymakers and whose events have received sponsorship from

Helsing and General Catalyst.

He said more than 12 defence tech startups had emerged from

hackathons it organised in Munich, Copenhagen and Paris in 2024

that were attended by around 440 people. The privately-owned

network hosted a similar event in Amsterdam last month.

"We're seeing growing anecdotal evidence that AI graduates

are increasingly open to working in defence, especially over the

past 12 months," Wolba said.

British university student Michael Rowley, 20, said he had

recently rejected offers of accounting and more traditional AI

jobs to work for a company developing technology that allows

sensors to better track troop movements.

"When I decided to go into defence I had quite a few

options, and for me it was the opportunity to do meaningful

work," said Rowley, whose Tiresias startup won a tech event in

Munich in February. "If I want to work for most tech companies I

might write code for advertising, but to be able to contribute

to the front lines and help protect democracy is an opportunity

not many people get."

Marie Inuzuka worked at OpenAI and Palantir ( PLTR ) before joining

Comand AI as a product manager in December last year, attracted

by the opportunity to do "more mission-driven, impactful work".

The 34-year-old is a descendant of survivors of the 1945

U.S. bombing of Nagasaki.

"My grandparents lived through the atomic bomb, so defence

has always been very close to my heart," she told Reuters.

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