Alex Macdonald

Technology which started as science fiction saves 1.8m lives per year and has created $55 trillion in value. Tell your story. Make it reality. Fiction is the future.

Max Buchanan is a n of 1 founder and I knew it as soon as I met him (even over zoom, a continent away). With a mission this powerful and a founder this strong, it was an easy investment and I’m super excited to support the Valarian team!

@JoshOckenden @max_buchan We invested as sequel. Just the start... wait until you see what they announce throughout the rest of the year 👀

@alexfmac @max_buchan Were you a spotter or a camper? Angel vs LP. Either way great result.

Does sovereignty over the data and software we use matter? Is it possible to build globally relevant companies from London? We are delighted to be invested in @max_buchan and the team at Valarian. Congratulations on the $50m Series A 👏

An exceptional moment of investment in British AI, security and IP: 🚀 Congrats, @max_buchan and team @ValarianHQ, on an exceptional $50m for secure British AI 🇬🇧 Welcome, @bipulsinha and team @rubrikInc, to your EMEA HQ, now in the UK with $500m of investment in AI cybersecurity 🤝 Government playing its part via @BritishBBank, with £500m of funding guarantee capacity for IP-rich UK SMEs ____ @ValarianHQ raise: businesswire.com/news/home/2026… @rubrikInc $500m in the UK: reuters.com/technology/rub… @BritishBBank £500m ENABLE facility: british-business-bank.co.uk/news-and-event…

EU needs to build critical infrastructure, and regain sovereignty. Valarian is doing just that and I love to see it! Congrats

‘Project Europe will never work’ ‘The best founders will not go for this’ ‘Project Europe is sexist and ageist’ 🥱🥱🥱

The move to understand AI, it's global implications and the ability to keep the AI lights on around the world without reliance on particular global companies or nations has come back to the forefront with the recent activity around allowing models or phasing their rollouts. "Sovereignity" is again a key topic. 1. Layer 0 - Sovereignity of location, easy to achieve. 2. Layer 1 - Hardware (has to be bought by global companies but can be deployed and managed locally. 3. Layer 2 - Staffing - can use locals to staff. 4. Layer 3 - Services and in the future AI models (usually delivered by global cloud and AI players) - this is where the challenges begin, what tradeoffs do you need to make, can you run services independently of the mother ship? Or can you build them locally - usually creates a technological delta in innovation, usually local companies are scarce at this layer and some tradeoffs are needed for innovation and scalability. 5. Layer 4 - Applications - Can usually be built and maintained locally, as long as they are needed only in the local context. 6. Layer 5 - Data - This can also be segregated and held locally and can be restricted from global movement. The risks arrive in the services layer and associated tradeoffs, application isolation, especially if companies are global in nature originating out of the sovereign state. Ultimate sovereignity also causes a resilience issue - requires a backup outside the country. But there is a strong use case for nation state services, classified data and local services with citizen data. Looking forward to @ValarianHQ and Max taking on the problem.

@JasonDigital @mikebutcher Turns out bluesky isn’t such a good platform for covering venture capital… 😉

@alexfmac It’s great to see @mikebutcher using 𝕏 again :)

This is a good interview with Max.

Feed is looking fresh today 🤌🏽 Great work Nikita.

Investing alongside one of the world’s very best @NEA … and @litcapital 😎🙌🏼🔥 Proud to back @ValarianHQ! Let’s go Max and team 🚀

Investing alongside tier 1s is cool… but how many co-investments do you have with @litcapital ? S-tier.

@ValarianHQ @NEA 'We shall fight for our data in the contracts and in the cloud; we shall fight for it in the model, the pipeline, and the prompt. Whatever the cost, we shall never surrender our IP to someone else's AI' Winston Churchill (probably)

Almost every organisation on Earth is paying for the privilege to hand over its IP to someone else's AI. We just closed a $50M Series A, led by @NEA, to build the alternative from right here in London: every model, agent and workload sealed in its own enclave, on infrastructure you control, with keys only you hold. You can't be sovereign on someone else's stack. Build your own with Valarian.

Great read for those in venture thinking about content & marketing.

The cope in the comments is something to behold. The truth is England fans are the most entertaining in the world - no-one is close to holding a candle to us. Dutch are a distant second followed by the Aussies.

Your regular reminder that there is a relatively stress-free way to travel that doesn’t require chartering your own plane. PS Miami now open - the vibes are exquisite 🤌🏽

@barstoolsports It’s a long row home 😉

@fan_banter Sure 👍

@alexfmac @alexfmac can we have your permission to post your video onto our socials with credit to you please :)

Time to show Haaland why Harald Hardrada failed in 1066. ❌🚣

@Zzxz769 One of the best players on the pitch today. If you want to discuss cowardice - I’d suggest doing so from an anon account is self-defeating. Enjoy the row home 😉

@alexfmac Cheated doing it then, cheating now. That Anderson guy is a pssy

Who else?