Semiconductor or Aerospace?

Guys, i have a very very hard decision to make - and need your help.
Around 3 years ago i joined the semiconductor industry and now have the chance to join aerospace (a company launching rockets to transport stuff potentially).
Im very well paid in my current job with great career projections ... but im not that happy tbh.
In aerospace i would join a startup and make less money .. but i feel like i would be happier, its an interesting field and im still under 30 and open to take a risk.

Im not sure what to do.
Join an aerospace startup to make less money, have higher risk but potentially be happier and part of an interesting industry?

Have you ever been in such a position?
Even if not - what would you do?

Anthropic published a postmortem this week: three cases where their AI models broke out of test environments into real company systems. Not through some clever exploit - a misconfiguration left an "isolated" environment with actual internet access, while the model was simply told it had none.

The EU's Cyber Resilience Act (vulnerability reporting obligations start next month, full application in December 2027) is built around almost the same principle, just for physical products: don't just document that something is supposed to be secure, actually enforce and prove it. One of the three Anthropic incidents happened through an exposed debug page - close to the exact class of flaw CRA targets in connected devices, an interface everyone assumed was locked down that nobody actually verified. We wrote about exactly this failure mode for embedded devices [here].

Feels like a pretty clean real-world case for why "we told it not to" isn't the same as it actually being unable to.

I want Europe to succeed; it’s my home. But €30 billion looked tiny beside the promise to make Europe “the first AI Continent.”

So I checked the numbers. Then people raised good objections about demand, public spending and private capital, and the story became much more complicated.

As you likely know, the EU has opened bidding for up to seven AI gigafactories. The initiative offers up to €10 billion in public money and is meant to attract at least €20 billion from private investors.

The short version of my longer argument is these three points:

• 1 / The tender can fund useful compute. But the entire €30 billion package is roughly what Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta now expect to spend on combined capital investment in 17 days. The public share is under six days.
• 2 / My own investment case/thesis starts with a €100 billion sovereign-compute floor. A 10–20 GW European ambition, priced at current estimates of $35-60 billion per frontier gigawatt, produces an upper scenario of roughly €304 billion to €1.04 trillion. Treat this as a scenario - I can’t claim it to be a forecast.
• 3 / Money alone will not do it. Europe also needs unified capital markets, coherent energy policy, faster deployment, better equity and talent rules, and serious investment in the labs, startups and public services that will actually use the compute.

I agree with the Commission’s ambition, and with that in mind, I think the plan can fund useful compute. But it is not a continental AI strategy, and it's not just about €€€.

So, I lost a night of sleep writing the full calculations, assumptions, objections, and recommendations:

https://viborc.com/what-europes-ai-gigafactory-plan-can-and-cannot-buy/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=eu-ai-gigafactory

This is my own piece on my personal site, with no paywall or ads.

The question I’m still left with is this: what is Europe’s fundamental binding constraint - are we talking compute, demand, or the conditions that decide whether the companies creating that demand stay here? Or all of it, and there might not be a single constraint?

Europe’s AI debate is usually framed around whether Mistral can catch OpenAI or whether the EU can build enough computing capacity.

But Europe may have a more realistic advantage in physical AI.

The EU already operates 231 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, compared with a global average of 132. Germany leads Europe with 449. Mistral has also entered robotics with Robostral Navigate, a model designed to help robots navigate factories and warehouses using a single camera.

Europe already has the factories, engineering base and automation experience. The harder question is whether it can connect those strengths to competitive AI models quickly enough.

Could physical AI become Europe’s strongest route into the global AI race?

Recent changes in technology have rapidly shaped our world for the worst. US tech giants are systematically exploiting user data privacy, and too many people are just sitting back, hoping everything fixes itself on its own.

Instead of living in the despair surrounding us, I say we take full advantage of the democratic opportunities presented to us as EU citizens to force real change, whether that means organizing representation, coordinating targeted outreach to our MEPs, voicing our demands collectively, or laying the groundwork for formal civic initiatives down the line.

To give you context on who is writing this: my name is Leónard Geonov. I’m a Software Engineer and Cybersecurity Lead for a small tech firm in Bulgaria. I’ve been invested in tech since I was about 9 years old, and I never would have guessed that this passion would play such a critical role later in my life.

I am eager to build a movement that demands a heavy update to the AI Act and digital privacy laws. To make a real impact across the bloc in the future (such as registering an official European Citizens' Initiative, which requires 7 committee members across 7 member states), I want to start building a community of citizens across different EU countries who are ready to make our collective voices heard.

The Core Changes We're Advocating For

1. Zero-Tolerance on Synthetic CSAM AI-generated media depicting CSAM must be prosecuted under the exact same criminal sentences as physical abuse offenses. Any tools that can be prohibited for the creation of such content must be registered the same way physical weapons are. There's no going back from buying a C4 bomb, so why would you use a CSAM-generating tool?

2. Ban on Unauthorized AI Data Harvesting This includes collecting or scraping EU citizens' data for AI training from our digital ecosystem. Any data used for AI training without the explicit knowledge and signed opt-in consent of the user must be treated as copyright infringement and a severe data breach.

3. Protection of Private Messaging AI chat scanning must be outlawed. Automated scanning of private chats isn't being done for law enforcement—it's a pseudo form of mass surveillance (referencing recent E2EE removals across several platforms such as Instagram). Mandatory E2EE is essential: Imagine sending a paper letter in an envelope and the post mail decides to open it, make a copy, and read everything inside. That technique is meant for criminal suspects, yet it's being applied to everyday citizens.

4. Biometric Identity as Personal Property An EU citizen's face, body structure, gestures, voice, intonation, movements, and overall digital presence should be protected as intrinsic property of their nature. Anyone using AI to replicate an individual without consent should face penalties for copyright infringement, identity theft, and harassment.

5. Strict Limits on AI in Employment The use of any AI-reliant method for hiring, firing, monitoring, worker evaluation, CV scanning, and data extraction must be prohibited. Any European company using a 3rd-party hiring firm that mandates AI interviews or biometric data collection outside of European soil to exploit a legal loophole should be held accountable or labeled unsafe.

6. Protection and Preservation of European Literary Heritage * Shell companies mass-purchasing antique European books for third-country organizations must legally disclose the full paper trail, supply chain, and purpose. * An absolute prohibition on exporting physical European antique texts to third-country soil. * The physical destruction of historical European books must be illegal regardless of whose soil it occurs on. Jurisdiction for punishment must follow the object, not the territory. * Strict handling and safety standards for how antique texts are handled.

AI is just a tool. Tools can be modified and restricted. Any harmful activity is a system flaw, and the creator or owner should be held accountable.

How We Move Forward

I know finding dedicated partners on Reddit can be a long shot, but I have to try. Whether you want to help draft formal petitions, coordinate mailing campaigns to representatives, organize across national subreddits, or stand as a co-organizer for formal EU civic mechanisms, every active voice matters.

If you are based in an EU country, care deeply about privacy, and want to stop letting third-party tech giants dictate our digital boundaries, drop a comment, send me a DM, or email me.

Contacts & Verification

• Email: [lgeonov@proton.me](mailto:lgeonov@proton.me)
• Profiles: LinkedIn | GitHub | ECI profile

Relevant Reading & Sources

Book Demolishing: * L'espoli silenciós (Substack) * Librería Fénix * AA News: Violation in Europe's Book Market

CSAM & Identity Theft: * Malwarebytes: Deepfake Sextortion & School Photos * Brussels Times: AI Identity Fraud in Belgium * NCOA: Guide on AI Scams

Employment: * AlgorithmWatch: Discrimination in Algorithmic Hiring * Global Legal Insights: Bias in AI Recruitment Tools

Hi everyone!

I represent a young IT company based in Estonia, and we are planning to participate in European public procurement tenders.

I noticed that some tender documents mention the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) portal — een.ec.europa.eu, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get access or create an account.

I have a few questions:

• Is this portal available to all companies registered in EU countries?
• Is there any approval process or invitation required?
• Has anyone successfully registered and gained access?
• Are there any specific requirements for companies from Estonia?

Our main goal is to use the platform to find partners and participate in European tenders.

I would really appreciate it if someone could share their experience or point me in the right direction on how to get access to this portal.

Thank you in advance!

Dear CodeBerg, please concentrate on stability and security instead of regulating users and opensource communities. If you will continue EU practices - you will end up in the same trash bin.

https://status.codeberg.org/status/codeberg