ctg. morning brief, 20 Oct 2026
On 20 Oct 2026, Prague's CSG is now the largest shareholder in MDA Space, the Canadian satellite and space-robotics maker with more than 450 missions behind it. The 9.5% stake was worth about US$434m at MDA's 12 Oct closing price, per Bloomberg (13 Oct).
Why it matters: Europe's ammo giant is buying its way into orbit instead of spending a decade building it. "Building everything from scratch would take too long," Michal Strnad told Bloomberg. CSG says the two could co-invest in manufacturing or assembly facilities in Europe and team up on acquisitions. Nothing like that is signed, and CSG did not disclose deal terms. Same interview: CSG wants to make large-calibre ammo and drone and missile propulsion in the US, nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin in Germany, and TNT in Greece.
Source: https://financialpost.com/news/economy/defence/csg-billionaire-buys-mda-space-stake
Siemens led a nine-figure strategic round in Skeleton Technologies (14 Oct), taking the Estonian supercapacitor maker past a $1bn valuation. The money goes mainly to the US: more than $200m for scale-up and Silicon Valley R&D, including plans for US cell manufacturing.
Why it matters: Skeleton's pitch is that AI power is now about smoothing millisecond load swings from GPU clusters. Its CEO says "supercapacitors are becoming the new semiconductors." The European twist: Siemens already designed and automated Skeleton's Leipzig SuperFactory, but the hyperscaler customers paying for the next plant are American. The 40% energy savings and double-digit GPU gains are company claims. Edition candidate: European tech, European strategic money, American factory. What would it take for the next cell line to land in Saxony?
Source: https://www.skeletontech.com/news/skeleton-technologies-secures-strategic-investment-led-by-siemens-to-expand-us-manufacturing
Swedish rugged-IT maker MilDef pre-announced Q3 (15 Oct): sales about SEK 825m, up 53% organically, EBITA of SEK 175-180m, and order intake around SEK 2.0-2.1bn, up roughly 130% year on year.
Why it matters: MilDef credits a higher delivery rate after capacity investments, which is the sentence Europe's defence industry needs to say more often. Not all clean: free cash flow was about SEK -115m as inventory built up before Q4 deliveries. Roughly SEK 920m is still to ship this year. Figures are preliminary; the full report lands Thu 22 Oct.
Source: https://investors.mildef.com/mfn_news/mildef-estimates-that-sales-and-earnings-for-the-third-quarter-of-2026-significantly-exceed-market-expectations/
Prague's Duvo, the new company from Rohlik founder Tomáš Čupr, raised a $32m Series A led by Balderton (14 Oct), with Index Ventures, Northzone and Credo Ventures back in. Total raised: $48m.
Why it matters: Duvo sells an "execution OS": AI interviews the people who do the work, then agents run the approved steps across ERPs, supplier portals, spreadsheets and inboxes. Per Balderton, Notino's quarterly reconciliation of about $45m a year in supplier bonuses went from 70 days to 15. The round funds a push into retail and consumer goods, with a former Kmart president running the US. Another Prague founder building for the world from day one.
Source: https://www.balderton.com/news/duvo-raises-32-million-series-a-to-become-the-one-platform-enterprises-run-their-operations-on/
SemiAnalysis (Substack, 19 Oct) calls 2027 the year of acceleration: about +50GW of new datacentre capacity in a single year, with more than 24GW across just 40 campuses already in advanced construction.
Why it matters: Per SemiAnalysis, power is now "largely solved" by behind-the-meter generation (fuel cells, truck engines, refurbished turbines) that skips 5-10 year grid queues, and prefab builds are coming in under 10 months. They also see the build outside the US accelerating sharply in 2027. Read it next to Loughton: the capacity is getting built this year. Whether Europe gets its share is a choice about on-site power and permits, not chips.
Source: https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/datacenters-2027-the-year-of-acceleration