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Startups & Venture·July 20, 2026·1 min read

How Daniel Ek is building his ‘new European dream’

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Ek is effectively building a private industrial policy thesis for Europe—tying capital, talent, and manufacturing around a long-term founder playbook. For operators in the region, the question is whether you align with that orbit or deliberately differentiate on geography, sector, or financing model.

Startups & Venture

Kai-Fu Lee stopped building AI models and started selling enterprise data infrastructure. Now 01.ai is heading for a Hong Kong IPO.

01.ai’s pivot from pure models to enterprise data infrastructure in China is a read on where defensibility and revenue sit—own the data plumbing and compliance layer, not just the weights. The unwind of offshore structures to target a 2027 Hong Kong IPO is another signal that serious China-facing AI businesses are aligning capital structure with domestic listing paths.