Sunda Energy has postponed drilling of its Chuditch-2 appraisal well in Timor-Leste until the first half of 2026, citing the absence of essential logistical services that meet international safety standards.

The AIM-listed exploration company had originally planned to drill the well in the second half of 2025 through its wholly owned subsidiary SundaGas. The remote location, approximately 200 nautical miles from Timor-Leste and Northern Australia, requires specialised logistical support that meets stringent industry safety and emergency response standards.

Sunda Energy shares sank 40% after the company outlined a string of knock-on effects of the failure to secure the right services to commence drilling as previously planned.

The delay has triggered the termination of a farm-in agreement signed in April with government-owned partner TIMOR GAP, as key conditions, including a definitive rig contract, could not be fulfilled. Under the original agreement, TIMOR GAP would have increased its stake in the project, but working interests now remain unchanged, with SundaGas holding 60% and TIMOR GAP retaining 40%.

The partnership structure means SundaGas remains responsible for 80% of project costs compared to TIMOR GAP’s 20% share. However, both parties have agreed to hold further discussions on potential revised partnering arrangements on substantially similar terms.

The delays may be beneficial for Sunda over the long term if they can negotiate more favourable terms. But the short-term considerations are dominating trade on Monday.

Funding arrangements will be a concern for investors. The company does not expect to draw down further tranches from convertible loan notes agreed in April, as these were conditional on the farm-in agreement and rig contract being fully effective.

Sunda now intends to pursue alternative funding sources and has indicated it will initiate discussions with potential funding parties that have previously expressed interest in the Chuditch project and its planned gas export.

As CEO, Dr Andy Butler, alluded in his comment accompanying the update, the value still within the project hasn’t changed, but the nature of some investors’ approach to early-stage natural resource companies means they may deploy capital elsewhere while Sunda pursues other avenues.

“While this temporary delay is frustrating, the significant value to Sunda and its shareholders remains,” said Dr Andy Butler, Chief Executive Officer of Sunda.

“The sole reason that the Company has not been able to sign the rig contract and progress to drill now is the absence of viable in-country logistical services that are mutually acceptable to the joint venture partners at this time.

“We are however already working to establish a plan for timely drilling in 2026, in close liaison with TIMOR GAP and ANP, building on the extensive preparations that have been carried out to date. SundaGas remains committed, along with our partner TIMOR GAP, to the early drilling and expedited development of Chuditch. I would like to thank our shareholders for their support. The Board remains confident of being able to capture the value of the project for the benefit of all stakeholders, including our partners in Timor Leste, with whom we remain closely aligned”

NVIDIA has laid the foundations for a comprehensive strategy to establish Europe as a global leader in artificial intelligence, unveiling plans for massive infrastructure investments across the continent during its time at VivaTech in Paris last week.

The American chip giant is partnering with European governments and technology leaders to deploy more than 3,000 exaflops of NVIDIA Blackwell computing power, representing one of the largest sovereign AI infrastructure commitments in the region’s history.

Alongside showcasing NVIDIA’s arsenal of AI hardware, including the NVIDIA DGX B200 and NVIDIA RTX PRO systems in Paris, NVIDIA revealed extensive plans for their deployment across Europe.

Huang’s series of high-profile, glitzy keynotes and interviews with state leaders underscored NVIDIA’s recognition of the market potential for their chips in Europe, and NVIDIA’s founder is wasting no time in ensuring his company is at the forefront of any expansion in the region’s AI infrastructure.

National Partnerships Drive Digital Sovereignty

France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom are set to spearhead domestic AI development through strategic partnerships with technology providers including Domyn, Mistral AI, Nebius, and Nscale. These collaborations aim to strengthen digital sovereignty whilst supporting economic growth across the continent.

“Every industrial revolution begins with infrastructure. AI is the essential infrastructure of our time, just as electricity and the internet once were,” said Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s founder and CEO, during the announcement.

French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised the strategic importance of the initiative: “France is committed to investing in AI to strengthen our economy, benefit our citizens and uphold our values. By working closely with our nation’s leading technology innovators and NVIDIA, we are equipping researchers, entrepreneurs and public institutions with the tools they need to explore new ideas.”

Country-Specific Infrastructure Projects

France leads with Mistral AI’s ambitious cloud platform, powered by 18,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell systems in its initial phase. The project will expand across multiple sites in 2026, enabling rapid development and deployment of AI applications using optimised Mistral AI models.

The United Kingdom is collaborating with cloud partners Nebius and Nscale to deploy 14,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs across new data centres. UK Tech Secretary Peter Kyle described the initiative as vital for delivering the nation’s AI ambitions and transforming AI Growth Zones into “engines of opportunity.”

Germany will host the world’s first industrial AI cloud for European manufacturers, featuring NVIDIA DGX B200 systems and RTX PRO servers with 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. This AI factory will accelerate manufacturing applications from design and engineering to factory digital twins and robotics.

Italy is advancing sovereign AI capabilities through partnerships with Domyn, which is developing its Large Colosseum reasoning model on the Colosseum supercomputer using NVIDIA Grace Blackwell Superchips.

Telecommunications Infrastructure Partnership

NVIDIA has secured partnerships with major European telecommunications providers—Orange, Fastweb, Swisscom, Telefónica, and Telenor—to develop secure, scalable AI infrastructure across the region.

Notable developments include Orange’s acceleration of enterprise-grade AI through its Cloud Avenue platform, Fastweb’s introduction of MIIA (an Italian language model), and Telefónica’s pilot of a distributed edge AI fabric across Spain with hundreds of NVIDIA GPUs.

Research and Development Expansion

The company is establishing and expanding AI technology centres across Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Finland. These centres will focus on AI skills development, research advancement, and infrastructure support for enterprises and startups.

The Bavarian AI centre in Germany will collaborate with the Bayern KI consortium on digital medicine and robotics research, whilst the UK centre will focus on embodied AI, materials science, and Earth systems modelling.

Minister Adolfo Urso of Italy’s Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy described the agreement as “a strategic step toward strengthening Italy’s technological sovereignty and ensuring that our businesses have secure and competitive access to data management.”

NVIDIA’s plans represent a significant commitment to European AI sovereignty, enabling enterprises, startups, and public sector organisations to develop and deploy AI applications securely within regional infrastructure.

The FTSE 100 slipped on Friday after Israel launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran responded with a drone attack.

Oil prices soared and stocks sank in the immediate reaction. Risk aversion spread through markets sending European equities sharply lower. 

“‘Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities’ is always a shocking headline to read, so it’s no surprise the immediate financial market reaction was significant, with oil prices surging by as much as 10% at one point,” said Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar.

“Thankfully markets have calmed since, as participants have had time to digest the news fully and assess the real impact of Israeli strikes. Currently, the oil price is up around 6% and equity markets down less than 1%, which gives us a good indication as to what equity markets are thinking.”

The FTSE 100 fared better than most with its weighting towards oil providing support for the index. BP and Shell gained around 2% and helped offset heavy losses elsewhere. 

“Oil majors Shell and BP both felt the tailwind of rising oil prices, while precious metal producers Endeavour Mining and Fresnillo both had a good day,” explained Derren Nathan, head of equity research, Hargreaves Lansdown.

Airlines were down sharply. IAG lost 4% and easyJet dropped 3%.

The spike in Middle East tensions overnight have sparked a wave of selling in equity markets that were already vulnerable to a sell off.

After a riproaring rally since the post-Trump tariff lows, stocks markets had begun to trade sideways and struggled for direction. Israel’s strike on Iran has proved to be the catalyst traders needed to take some risk off the table.

“Equity markets have risen for two months and had begun to flag, and news prompted sharp drops. While futures have edged higher, we can expect more short-term volatility as the two sides trade further blows,” said Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at IG.

Another day, and another London-listed company is snapped up by an overseas entity.

Today, Dundee Precious Metals Inc. has agreed to acquire Adriatic Metals Plc in a recommended cash and share offer that values the British mining company at approximately US$1.2 billion.

Adriatic Metals began silver production at its Vareš mine last year and has been ramping up production since. In the quarter ended March 31st, Adriatic Metals’ production increased 46% compared to the prior quarter, and sales increased 26% to $34m.

Rising silver prices, increasing production and Adriatic Metals’ lowly valuation appear to have been too attractive for Dundee to let the opportunity slip by.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Adriatic shareholders will receive 0.1590 new DPM shares and 93p in cash per Adriatic share held.

The deal values each Adriatic share at 268p, based on DPM’s closing price of CAD$20.33 on 11 June 2025. The consideration will be settled 34.7% in cash and 65.3% in equity.

The transaction represents a 50.5% premium to Adriatic’s closing price of 178p on 19 May 2025 and a 31.8% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price prior to the offer period.

DPM’s acquisition strategy centres on Adriatic’s flagship Vareš Silver Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company believes the transaction aligns with its goal to create a combined group with enhanced operational and financial capabilities.

DPM highlighted its existing presence in the Balkans, where it currently operates both underground and open-pit mining operations, as providing operational synergies.

The Vareš operation represents a new underground precious metals mining operation with what DPM describes as a low-cost profile, extended mine life, and significant exploration potential.

The deal will be a boost to junior miners moving towards production, but another kick in the teeth for London’s markets.

“Adding Adriatic’s Vareš operation to our strong asset portfolio creates a premier mining business with a peer-leading growth profile, high-quality development and exploration pipeline and a robust platform to deliver above-average returns,” said Commenting on this Announcement, David Rae, the CEO of DPM.

“The Vareš is a logical fit with our portfolio, and adds near-term production growth and mine life, a highly prospective land package, and cash flow diversification. We are well-positioned to leverage our expertise in underground mining and our strong financial position to further optimize the operation and realize Vareš full value potential, based on our analysis.”

AFC Energy has slashed the build cost of its 30kW hydrogen fuel cell generators by approximately 85% through low-cost stack technology and value engineering, the AIM-listed company announced.

Hydrogen fuel cell delivery is still expected to commence in mid-2026 as previously guided by the firm.

To help accelerate global expansion and reduce costs, AFC has signed a supply agreement for future fuel cell systems and is progressing plans for volume manufacturing.

AFC said it intends to enter a global strategic partnership with integrated manufacturing specialist Volex Plc to support its expansion plans.

The cost reduction exceeds AFC Energy’s target for substantial generator cost cuts and aims to achieve cost parity with diesel alternatives. The partnership with Volex is expected to drive costs down further through materials leverage and economies of scale.

AFC Energy says the cost reductions will help accelerate the adoption of its technology to replace diesel generators, combined with its hydrogen production capabilities.

“As previously announced, our strategy is to deliver commercial viability of the hydrogen economy, without reliance on Government subsidy,” said John Wilson, CEO of AFC Energy.

“In April, alongside our results, we announced an aggressive plan to target a significant reduction of the cost of our 30kW hydrogen fuel cell generators to drive market adoption.  I’m delighted that this ambition has been fulfilled, with an expected c.85% reduction, and we target mid-2026 for delivery of our first low cost generators.  We are grateful for the support of Volex Plc to date and look forward to developing our strategic partnership.”