May 18 (Reuters) - The European Union has selected Swedish private equity group EQT ?AB to run its 5 billion euro ($5.83 billion) Scaleup Europe Fund set up with an aim to invest in technology companies, the EU and investment firm said on Monday.
The fund would provide capital into deep-tech sectors, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean energy and space technology among others, statements said.
Scaleup Europe Fund is set to make its first investments in autumn 2026, thet European Commission said in its statement.
Alongside the European Commission, the group of founding investors in the fund also include Novo Holdings, Santander/Mouro Capital and Allianz, the statements said.
Europe has been trying to achieve strategic autonomy in key sectors amid trade tensions with the United States and China and the dominance of U.S. Big Tech.
Nokia CEO Justin Hotard told Reuters last month that Europe lacks the infrastructure needed to build up artificial intelligence data centres and is not investing enough to keep business from moving to China ?and the United States.
"Our ambition is for the Scaleup Europe Fund to be more than capital. We want it to be a catalyst for the wider ecosystem, driving corporate partnerships, strengthening talent networks and fostering further public-private collaboration," Ted Persson, partner at EQT and proposed co-head of the Scaleup Europe Fund advisory team, said.
($1 = 0.8583 euros)
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona;Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Cynthia Osterman)
