Daniel Ek‘s latest business moves are facing significant scrutiny.
Prima Materia, the investment company co-founded by the 42-year-old Spotify co-founder, is leading a €600 (approximately $696) million investment in Helsing, a Munich-based company creating drones and AI for military operations, per the Financial Times.
Helsing was initially a software company founded in 2021 by Torsten Reil, a former gaming executive, A.I. researcher Niklas Köhler, and Gundbert Scherf, former special adviser to Germany’s military of defense, Fader reports.
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Daniel‘s initial investment of €100 million came soon after the company’s launch.
In a 2023 Wired profile, co-founder Torsten Reil said the company was “quite involved” in Ukraine’s military operations amid Russia’s invasion.
In that same Wired profile, the writer Morgan Meaker asked whether the founders would ever “sell to countries like Poland or Hungary—countries within the EU where governments have stripped judges of their independence and cracked down on LGBTQ rights,” and noted that she did not receive an answer back.
“Helsing is a new type of defence company. We provide precision mass and autonomous capabilities to democracies so that they can deter and protect,” the official website states, with a corporate slogan of: “AI to serve democracies.”
As a chairman on Helsing’s board, the Spotify co-founder told the Times that after the initial investment, Prima Materia would be “doubling down” on its investment in 2025 as Helsing expands from software to machines, including drones, aircrafts, and submarines.
“The world is being tested in more ways than ever before,” he told the outlet.
“There’s an enormous realisation that it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield… We can’t understate the implications of that for this conflict [in Ukraine] or really any conflict going forward.”
“I’m sure people will criticize it and that’s OK. Personally, I’m not concerned about it. I focus more on doing what I think is right and I am 100 per cent convinced that this is the right thing for Europe,” he added of backlash to his investment.
Daniel Ek was also at the center of controversy regarding Joe Rogan amid the pandemic.
Source: justjared.com