Idriss Potolot

Life is too short, build stuff that matters.
Writing about AI infrastructure through a European lens

[TIME @TIME]

TIME’s new cover: Norway is now the arctic outpost of the AI boom. Here’s how it happened https://t.co/LcfpFtqKU9

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

@SebJohnsonUK @harveyhodd @Rivanindustries Tackling this exact dependency question in my latest piece, The Electro-Union, built around an open letter drafted by @norrsken_org last month. Happy to see builders working toward European energy sovereignty.
https://t.co/iUehvVyU8F

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

Lausanne-based. EPFL roots. Backed by @SoftBank , @Synopsys , @Cadence .

The real AI infrastructure story isn't just compute and energy. It's how fast data moves between chips. That's the next bottleneck and the next power struggle.

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

Everyone's watching the GPU wars.

Almost nobody's watching who controls the wires between them.

@kandoubus just raised $225M to solve the memory interconnect bottleneck in AI, the physical layer most coverage ignores.
https://t.co/vEAXYPdKFr

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

🤖 FuturePresent raises $300M to bet on AI in the physical world, robotics, logistics, industry. AI isn't just living in the cloud anymore: it's acting in the real world.

https://t.co/PPepJNt9c0 via @tech_eu

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

The real story: today one company (@ASMLcompany ) makes virtually all advanced lithography machines. Every AI chip in the world depends on it.

Who controls the machine that makes the machine?

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

🇳🇴Norway's Lace Lithography just raised €34.5M to replace light with atoms in chip manufacturing.
👇🧵

https://t.co/6udORgbCOA via @EU-Startups

[European Commission @EU_Commission]

We are introducing EU Inc. To make building and growing a business across the EU faster, simpler, and smarter.

🔸 Start a company in less than 48 hours
🔸 No minimum capital requirement
🔸 Fully online and borderless

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

2/ AI is starting to look less like software — and more like infrastructure.
Every inference consumes compute. Compute consumes electricity. Electricity requires land, grids, cooling, and capital.

Intelligence is becoming industrial.

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

Why ‘hold forever’ investors are snapping up venture capital ‘zombies’ https://t.co/LTlbRsSkJy via @techcrunch

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

https://t.co/E6NvCIJPhk

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

AI just rewired B2B SaaS.

@Accel's 2025 GlobalScape shows:
⚡️ AI-native startups scaling faster
📉 Traditional growth compressing
🏗️ New AI-led GTM models
💼 Teams hiring ops + AI before sales

We’re entering the era of AI-first efficiency.
#SaaS #AI #GTM
https://t.co/A83ZoTarew

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

It’s Time to Build: Healthtech Infrastructure https://t.co/LkhOJy6HGg

[Ryo Lu @ryolu_]

stop overthinking, start building:

the best way to predict the future is to invent it. and the best way to invent is to start building.

you can dream all you want. you can think in abstract, map out perfect systems in your head, debate the ideal architecture. but none of that matters until you start making something real.

building is like mounding clay. you don't start with the perfect form. you start with a lump. you push, you shape, you feel the resistance. the material talks back. it tells you what works and what doesn't. you learn by doing, not by thinking about doing.

with Cursor, the gap between idea and reality is basically zero now. you don't need to know every syntax, every framework, every pattern. you just need to start. Cursor helps you shape the clay. it fills in the gaps. it lets you focus on what you're making, not how to make it.

overthinking is just fear dressed up as preparation. you're not getting ready, you're just delaying. the longer you wait, the more you convince yourself it needs to be perfect before you start. but perfect doesn't exist at the beginning. it only emerges through iteration.
every great thing you've ever seen started as something rough. the first iPhone was a prototype held together with tape. the first Notion was a clunky tool that barely worked. the first anything was messy. but it existed. and because it existed, it could be improved.

so stop planning the perfect app. stop debating the right tech stack. stop waiting for the right moment. just open Cursor and start building. make something bad. make something that barely works. then make it better. then make it better again.

the future isn't something you think your way into. it's something you build your way into. one line of code at a time. one iteration at a time. like mounding clay until something beautiful emerges.

start today. start now. start messy. just start.

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

The future of the web is the history of YouTube https://t.co/NtE8h4rNgm

[Nikhil Krishnan @nikillinit]

a classic trap of idealistic people joining a health tech startup is that they think most people working in the healthcare system want their jobs to improve

they run into the reality: the majority of people in healthcare want stable 9-5 jobs with simple tasks, they are not trying to change things/learn new tools/automate those simple tasks

And fwiw, they are also not financially incentivized to change things. They are usually salaried/hourly and what you're suggesting is potentially introducing risk to the stability of their job or changing the nature of their job to harder/more complex tasks without a requisite pay increase.

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

@corti_ai Huge milestone !
Congrats

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

"One theme has become clearer: activity is clustering around the workflows and infrastructure that power healthcare delivery"
@Rock_Health
https://t.co/iiNLuMfJFn

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

Owlstone Medical wins up to $49.1M ARPA-H award to pioneer breath-based cancer detection https://t.co/BmfJwyWJk2 via @tech_eu

[Idriss Potolot @IPotolot]

@sylviahealth takes on a global women’s health crisis https://t.co/ODyaJvhcmZ via @tech_eu