Europe’s AI companies are usually ranked by where they sit and what they are worth. This series asks the prior question, which is who owns them.
We take the ten most valuable independent firms with a European headquarters, the UK included, and record who led the last priced round, which named investors are American, and whether the company is European in law or only on the letterhead.
Sovereignty, in the speeches, means the models, the data and the compute stay under European control. The version a cap table can answer is narrower, and it is the one we can check.
The week’s clearest case sits outside the ten. On October 8, Isomorphic Labs, the London drug-discovery company spun out of Google DeepMind, was reported to be in early talks to raise money at a valuation of at least $40 billion, and possibly as much as $50 billion. Although the round has not closed, even a close at the bottom of that range would leave a London laboratory worth more than any independent AI company on the continent, with Alphabet still the owner.
The ten companies listed below are the independent names that cleared the same bar on October 9, 2026, and their latest priced rounds still run through Menlo Park, New York and Sequoia more often than through a European lead.
Who Counts as One of Europe’s AI Champions?
A company is on this list if it builds AI as the product, is not a subsidiary, and had its headquarters in Europe on the cut-off date. The price is the latest transaction the company has announced, or that has been reported by a primary filing or a tier-1 outlet. Figures stay in the currency of that report. Euros are converted only to set the order, and they are never added to dollars.
Two tests take a company off, even if the price is higher. A subsidiary fails the ownership test, which is why Isomorphic Labs is absent: the lab is in London, and Alphabet owns it. A move of headquarters fails the address test. Fluidstack, founded in Oxford, was based in London until December 2025 and is now headquartered in New York.
Defence hardware and satellite intelligence stay off, even where the round is confirmed. Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion at about $8 billion on July 2. TEKEVER’s Series D first close, on September 23, was reportedly $580 million at $6.4 billion. ICEYE said on June 9 that a Series F led by General Atlantic valued it at over €10 billion. Quantum Systems and TEKEVER are drone makers. ICEYE sells satellite intelligence. Those three would enter the ten if the rule were widened to defence autonomy.
No company publishes what each investor paid, so “US exposure” is a reading of the lead’s nationality and the named investors, not a share of the cap table. NVIDIA, directly or through NVentures, is named in Mistral, Nscale, Wayve, NEURA, Legora, n8n’s earlier round and Ineffable. Helsing’s July release does not include it. ElevenLabs named NVIDIA in May, and Lovable’s Series C announcement does not. That is eight of the ten on the public record.
Who Owns the Ten?
1. Mistral AI (Paris), more than €21 billion
Mistral builds open-weight models that customers can download and run on their own servers, and sells them as a sovereign alternative to the American labs. Arthur Mensch, Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample founded it in 2023.
The Paris company said on September 8 that it had raised €3 billion in a Series D at a post-money valuation of more than €21 billion, the company figure, with Samsung Electronics leading and the EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund and existing investor PSG Equity as co-leads. The Financial Times stated the price at €21 billion flat. Further reports indicate that Andreessen Horowitz, NVIDIA and Salesforce Ventures put more money in, alongside new cheques from Advent and BlackRock. ASML held about 11% at the end of 2025, before this round diluted every holder, on the reading in our filing note. The post-round stake has not been disclosed.
2. ElevenLabs (London; Delaware incorporation), $22 billion
ElevenLabs turns text into speech and runs voice agents that take calls for companies and governments. Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski founded it in 2022.
The company said on September 30 that it had closed a $300 million employee tender at $22 billion, led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, double the $11 billion attached to its February primary round, and that its agents handle more than 15 million conversations a week. Reuters describes it as London-based. The Financial Times reported that ElevenLabs is incorporated in Delaware. The $22 billion figure is a price on existing shares, not new money into the company.
3. Helsing (Munich), $18 billion
Helsing builds defence software and hardware, including the HX-2 strike drone and the battlefield software it sells to European governments. Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf and Niklas Köhler founded it in 2021.
The company said on July 13 that it had raised $1.8 billion in a Series E at $18 billion, and that it “remains predominantly European-owned”. The release names Dragoneer, Lightspeed, ICONIQ, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorganChase and General Catalyst among the buyers, names no lead, and does not name NVIDIA. A reading of Helsing SE’s register, in our shareholder note, puts European holders, founders included, at about 60% of the shares.
4. Nscale (London), $14.6 billion
Nscale builds AI data centres and sells the GPU capacity inside them. Josh Payne founded it in 2024.
The London company said on March 9 that Aker and 8090 Industries led a $2 billion Series C at $14.6 billion, with NVIDIA, Citadel, Jane Street and Point72 among the names. Aker told the Oslo stock exchange the same day that the cash investment and the roll-up of its joint venture were expected to take it to about 23.9% on a fully diluted basis, the largest disclosed European stake on this list. Nscale has since filed to list in New York. Aker’s March 27 notice, not the March 9 filing, said an agreed acquisition of American Intelligence & Power would leave the stake at about 22.7% once that deal completed.
5. Lovable (Stockholm), $13.3 billion
Lovable lets people build web applications by describing them in plain English, a category the trade press calls “vibe coding”, and customers named by the company include Adidas and Deutsche Telekom. Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin founded it.
Lovable said on August 12 that Menlo Ventures led, and the Scaleup Europe Fund co-led, a $400 million Series C at $13.3 billion, the same European fund that sits inside Mistral’s round. Founders Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin still hold a large minority between them, on the estimate in our ownership note.
6. Wayve (London), $8.6 billion
Wayve builds the software that drives a car, and wants that software to work across cities without a fresh map for each one. Alex Kendall and Amar Shah founded it.
The London company said on February 25 that Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $1.2 billion Series D at an $8.6 billion post-money valuation, with Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber in the round, plus Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Stellantis. Uber’s further $300 million is milestone capital, so the closed equity is $1.2 billion, and the British Business Bank also invested.
7. NEURA Robotics (Metzingen), about $7 billion
NEURA Robotics builds humanoid robots and the software that trains them. David Reger founded it in 2019.
Tether said on June 10 that it was leading a round of up to $1.4 billion. Reports listed Tether among the investors and put the valuation at about $7 billion, with an order book above $1 billion. Amazon, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Bosch, Schaeffler and the European Investment Bank were also named. An earlier registry figure near €4 billion conflicts with that report, so this rank uses the reported number and should move if the company publishes a lower price. The product context is in our robotics ranking.
8. Legora (Stockholm), $5.6 billion
Legora sells AI tools that help lawyers review, research and draft documents. Max Junestrand, Sigge Labor and August Erséus founded it in 2023, as Leya.
The Stockholm company, founded as Leya, told reporters on April 30 that an extension took its Series D to $600 million at $5.6 billion, with Accel leading the March first close and NVIDIA’s NVentures in the extension. Reports describe it as Swedish. The US is its largest market and it has a New York office, so a shift of headquarters to New York would push it off this list under the Fluidstack rule.
9. n8n (Berlin), $5.2 billion
n8n builds workflow software that connects business systems and, more recently, AI agents. Jan Oberhauser founded it.
The Berlin company said on May 12 that SAP’s investment valued it at $5.2 billion, more than double the price of its October 2025 round, and that the two will embed n8n inside SAP’s agent builder. The stake size is not in the company post, so it is not used here. Earlier backers include Sequoia and NVIDIA’s NVentures, and the latest cheque is German.
10. Ineffable Intelligence (London), $5.1 billion
Ineffable Intelligence wants to build a “superlearner” that finds new knowledge from its own experience rather than from human text. David Silver, a former DeepMind researcher, founded it in late 2025. It has no product and no revenue.
Reports indicated that on April 27 Sequoia and Lightspeed led a $1.1 billion seed at $5.1 billion, with NVIDIA, Google, the UK Sovereign AI Fund and the British Business Bank participating, and described it as Europe’s largest seed round. NVIDIA’s ticket size is not in that report.
Here is the full list, side-by-side:
Which Companies Already Left the List?
Fluidstack is the headquarters case. On September 3 a Jane Street-led round valued the company at more than $18 billion. It had been a London company until December. Had it stayed, it would have sat level with Helsing. Reports name Jane Street, BlackRock, Atreides, Alphabet and Spark among the holders, but they do not say the cap table is American.
Isomorphic Labs is the ownership case. On October 8 a report put the talks at $40 billion to $50 billion, with the financing unclosed and the people familiar with it saying the terms can change. The same reporting said the company raised $2.1 billion earlier in 2026. A close at the low end of the new range would make a London lab the most valuable AI company in Europe, and it would still be an Alphabet company, which is why it is not in the ten.
Does American Capital Mean American Control?
A billion-euro cheque at the speed these rounds closed is still easier to raise in the United States than in Europe, and founders can keep control through share classes even when the cheque is American.
Mistral’s own filings, read in our ownership note, give a small block of preference shares a much larger share of the votes. An NVIDIA stake is also a supply relationship: Nscale’s pre-IPO notes from NVIDIA, disclosed in the draft prospectus covered here, convert into shares that do not vote.
Samsung and ASML anchor Mistral, and Helsing says it is predominantly European-owned, with the register supporting a European majority. The Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT with the European Commission as an anchor, co-led both Mistral’s Series D and Lovable’s Series C. Who puts money into that fund is in our explainer. The wider map of who is writing European AI cheques is in which VCs are backing the sector.
ElevenLabs is a Delaware company with a London office, Fluidstack has already moved, and Legora’s revenue weight is in the United States. A listing, if ElevenLabs follows the path its chief executive has sketched to reporters, would likely be in New York. Ownership and control can diverge for years, and they tend to meet at the exit.
What Happens Next?
Four things move this list. An Isomorphic close at $40 billion or above would sit above every independent name and still fail the subsidiary test. A new ElevenLabs primary round would replace a tender price, which is a mark on existing shares rather than new money into the company. The Scaleup Europe Fund’s next deployment shows whether European primary capital keeps arriving at this size. Legora’s headquarters, if they shift from Stockholm to New York, would drop it under the same rule that removed Fluidstack.
Author: Grace Sharp
See Also:
Who Is Jeannette zu Fürstenberg? General Catalyst’s Europe Bet
Who is Shaun Maguire? The Elon Musk Whisperer
Which VCs Are Actually Backing European AI in 2026?
How We Checked This
Figures above are from company announcements and tier-1 reporting, cut off on October 9, 2026. The February watchlist on this site ranked a different set, before this year’s rounds and before Fluidstack left London. Prices stay in the currency of the report, and euros are never added to dollars. A figure is used only where the company has announced it, or where Reuters, Bloomberg or the Financial Times has. Stake sizes are used only where the company or a stock-exchange filing gives them. “US exposure” is a reading of the lead and the named investors, not a percentage of the cap table.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The ten largest independent AI companies with a European headquarters are still European by address. The last priced round was led from the United States at ElevenLabs, Lovable, Legora and Ineffable. Samsung led Mistral, Aker co-led Nscale, SAP led n8n, and Tether led NEURA. Helsing named no lead.
ElevenLabs is headquartered in London and incorporated in Delaware. Its September 30 price, $22 billion, was set by an employee share sale led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, not by new money into the company.
Samsung Electronics led Mistral’s September 8 round, with the Scaleup Europe Fund and PSG Equity as co-leads. The company put the valuation at more than €21 billion. ASML held about 11% at the end of 2025, before this round diluted every holder. The post-round stake has not been disclosed.
Helsing said on July 13 that it remains predominantly European-owned after an $1.8 billion round at $18 billion. The release names no lead, and it does not name NVIDIA. A reading of the register puts European holders, founders included, at about 60%.
A European headquarters does not settle the cap table. Sovereignty in the speeches means the models, the data and the compute stay under European control. The check this list can make is narrower: who led, who is named, and whether the company is European in law or only on the letterhead.
