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September 7, 2026

Hugging Face’s $12.9bn sale is both inspiring and dispiriting for Europe

Nvidia has snapped up the French startup

John Thornhill

4 min read

The Trump administration imposes tariffs on European exports, threatens to invade Greenland, supports far-right political parties and warns of the continent’s “civilisational erasure.” And how does Europe respond? It buys record amounts of US equities and bonds, helping to lower the country’s cost of capital and sharpen its competitive edge.

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John Thornhill

John Thornhill is Sifted’s founder and innovation editor of the Financial Times. He tweets from @johnthornhillft

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