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German energy pioneer Marvel Fusion, which is developing laser-based clean nuclear fusion with a goal of making an impactful contribution to the energy transition and Europe‘s energy sovereignty, on July 7 announced a new scientific collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, which the Free State of Bavaria is supporting with funding of €2.5 million.

The investment from local government, advocated by Science Minister Markus Blume, “is a great signal that Bavaria believes in fusion,” says Marvel Fusion Chief Operating Officer Heike Freund. “But Europe needs to be careful about not falling behind.”

There are currently 35 fusion startups worldwide. Only two are in Europe.

Read on to learn more about this story and the week's most relevant technology news impacting business.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen the first group of encryption tools that are designed to withstand the assault of a future quantum computer, which could potentially crack the security used to protect intellectual property and privacy in the digital systems companies rely on every day such as online banking and email software.

The July 5th announcement should serve as a wake-up call to corporates, says Ali El Kaafarani, CEO of UK-based PQShield,a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and one of The Innovator’s 2021 Startups Of The Week. The company contributed a public key encryption algorithm and three digital signature algorithms announced as standards by NIST.

When large-scale quantum computers – machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable for conventional computers - are built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use.

While it is hard to predict when quantum computers will be perfected, once access becomes available all existing public-key algorithms and associated protocols will be vulnerable to criminals, competitors, and other bad actors. “It is critical to begin planning for the replacement of hardware, software, and services that use public-key algorithms now so that the information is protected from future attacks,” says El Kaafarani.

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Siequa combines the power of search with advanced natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to help large, global companies and government agencies get the most out of their own data. Customers include AstraZeneca, Pfizer, NASA, Airbus Helicopter, EDF and Volkswagen.

Data is siloed in most organizations. The Paris-based scaleup bridges that gap by providing employees with relevant information and insights from all enterprise sources. “Just as Google mines the Web, companies should be able to mine their data and extract all the innovation from their people collectively by putting their content to work,” says CEO Alexandre Bilger. “When you aggregate a lot of data sources and discover connections it is a way to spark new ideas and improve the innovation journey," he says.

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Percentage of public- and private-sector leaders who oversee climate and AI topics who believe that AI is a valuable asset in the fight against climate change, according to a report released this week by the AI for the Planet Alliance which was produced in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BCG Gamma. Based on survey results from over 1,000 executives with decision-making authority on AI or climate-change initiatives, the report found that roughly 40% of organizations envision using AI for their own climate efforts. However, even among these experts, there is widespread agreement that significant barriers to broad adoption remain in place: 78% of respondents cite insufficient AI expertise as an obstacle to using AI in their climate change efforts, 77% cite limited availability of AI solutions as a roadblock, and 67% point to a lack of confidence in AI-related data and analysis.