Estonia launches bold AI initiative to double productivity
Estonia is no stranger to being the first in official digital adoption — already succeeding in making all governmental services online, using blockchain and e-voting. Now it’s time to take this approach into the AI era. The Estonian government unveiled Eesti.ai on Tuesday, an ambitious national program that aims to systematically implement artificial intelligence across all sectors, with the goal of doubling the value of Estonian work by 2035.
Prime Minister Kristen Michal launched the initiative alongside Bolt founder Markus Villig, who will chair the international advisory council driving the program. The council brings together Estonian tech leaders, including IT visionary Linnar Viik and entrepreneurs Sten Tamkivi (Skaala), Kaspar Korjus (Pactum), and Taavi Madiberk (Skeleton), working alongside international experts and sector representatives.
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Originally published on 27 Jan
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The Klaipėda liquefied natural gas (LNG) reloading station, operated by international terminal operator KN Energies, closed 2025 with record results. Over the year, the highest number of LNG trucks since the start of the station’s operations was loaded, while a record number of small-scale LNG carriers was handled at the adjacent jetty. December 2025 was also record-breaking, both in terms of loaded LNG trucks and received LNG carriers.
In total, more than 1.8 thousand LNG trucks were loaded at the Klaipėda LNG reloading station in 2025. This accounts for more than one quarter of all LNG trucks loaded since the start of operations in 2017 (nearly 6.4 thousand in total). In December 2025 alone, 277 LNG trucks were handled — more than twice the average monthly volume of the past three years.
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Originally published on 19 Jan
On Friday, January 16, 2026, the international credit rating agency Moody’s affirmed Latvia’s credit rating at A3 level, maintaining a stable outlook.
“Latvia has a stable credit rating, and Moody’s decision to confirm the A3 level with a stable outlook is very good news for us. This confirms that geopolitical risk is increasing internationally and investors and lower partners trust Latvia’s ability to develop a developed fiscal policy, ensure the state and adapt to shocks. levels in the region, employee budget sustainability and security, promoting growth. Let us continue this course so that Latvia is an attractive and reliable country for both investors and our people,” says Prime Minister Evika Siliņa.
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Originally published on 16 Jan
Global beauty company L’Oréal announced the launch of its new Sustainable Innovation Accelerator, a new program aimed at investing €100 million over 5 years to find, develop, pilot and scale breakthrough technologies addressing the company’s and industry’s sustainability-focused challenges. Out of more than 1000 applicants worldwide, Estonian company RAIKU Packaging has been selected as one of just 13 companies to join the L’Oréal Sustainable Innovation Accelerator, with an acceptance rate of 1%.
RAIKU has developed a 100% natural packaging material that offers luxurious aesthetics and excellent shock absorption. The material is one of the lowest carbon footprint materials in the world as the company has brought to the market a radically more efficient production process than traditional industries reporting over 90% resource reduction.
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Originally published on 19 Jan
We are deeply saddened by the news of the tragic train accident in southern Spain, which has claimed many lives and left many others injured.
Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones, and with everyone affected by this tragedy. We extend our sympathy to our colleagues in the Spanish railway sector and to the emergency services who responded at the scene.
Rail Baltica stands in solidarity with the people of Spain at this difficult time.
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Originally published on 19 Jan
In 2025, with the involvement of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), the implementation of 31 investment projects was launched. The total value of these projects reached €1.01 billion, and 1,350 new jobs will be created. The largest projects last year were related to bioeconomy, smart energy, high-value-added manufacturing, ICT, and other sectors.
Minister for Economics Viktors Valainis: “Latvia aims to be among the most attractive investment destinations in the region, and LIAA’s results in 2025 confirm this—the Agency has attracted the highest investment volume in a single year in Latvia’s history. It is particularly significant that data from the Bank of Latvia show that in the first three quarters of 2025, the total volume of foreign investment increased by €700 million. This means Latvia can and does compete. Our task is to continue improving the business environment, removing obstacles, and ensuring investors have a clear, fast path from concept to implementation.”
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Originally published on 15 Jan
Helsinki-based product growth automation platform Skene announces it has closed a €800,000 pre-seed round led by Superhero Capital and with participation from NVIDIA executives. With its first agent already live, Skene CEO Teemu Kinos, Co-Founder of GetJenny, aims to use the funds to cross €1M ARR and expand their offering to support growth across the full user journey by spring 2026.
The rapid acceleration of software development via AI has led to a $113 billion problem: the gap between building a product and achieving commercial success. With 42% of startups missing the market entirely and up to 53% of SaaS applications going unused or underutilised, this execution gap translates into over $113 billion in annual wasted venture investment in viable products that fail to drive essential growth outcomes such as activation, feature adoption, and retention.
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Originally published on 15 Jan
To ensure operational reliability and sufficient capacity, ESL Shipping has acquired a geared ice-class 1A second-hand vessel. This strategic acquisition follows the sale of Kallio and bridges the gap in capacity until the first Green Handy vessels join the fleet in about two years.
The vessel, which has a deadweight of 16,600 tons, was handed over on 12 January in Tallinn, Estonia. The vessel was renamed Nordis and sails under the Finnish flag.
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Originally published on 15 Jan
British aerospace and defence firm Babcock and Estonian defence company Frankenburg Technologies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore the creation of a new and affordable air‑defence solution, prompted by the growing threat posed by one‑way attack drones.
As part of the MoU, Babcock will develop a cost-effective, containerised platform for launching Frankenburg’s new low-cost missiles, which it is manufacturing at pace, specifically to defend against one-way attack drones.
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Originally published on 15 Jan
The Artificial Intelligence Association of Latvia (MILA) has joined the Standardization Technical Committee LVS/STK 59 “Artificial Intelligence,” strengthening professional industry representation in the development and implementation of AI standards in Latvia. MILA is represented on the committee by its co-founder and board member, Gatis Romanovskis.
The Standardization Technical Committee LVS/STK 59 was established in November 2025 to ensure Latvia’s regular and active participation in the development of European and international standards in the field of artificial intelligence. The committee’s scope covers AI terminology, fundamental principles, systems, conformity assessment, as well as the management of ethical and societal aspects, promoting the adoption and practical implementation of these standards in Latvia.
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Originally published on 14 Jan
The Finnish Hydrogen Cluster has today published a hydrogen economy roadmap, which provides the guidelines and measures to elevate Finland into Europe’s most competitive hydrogen economy by 2035.
The measures presented in the hydrogen economy roadmap focus on areas such as initiatives to boost the hydrogen market, the increased availability of clean energy and biogenic carbon dioxide, project financing, and safety. Industry, the government, European Union institutions all need to do their part to enable investments in the hydrogen ecosystem.
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Originally published on 14 Jan