Daniel Ek: Spotify faces boycott calls over CEO's £598m investment in AI military drone company, net worth

The backlash erupted after Ek’s venture capital firm Prima Materia led a major funding round this month to Helsing SE, a German defence tech startup that develops military drones and AI battlefield software.

The move pushes Helsing’s valuation to €12 billion and placing it among Europe’s most valuable private tech companies. Helsings’ technology is already being deployed by governments in Germany, the UK, Sweden, and Ukraine.

Ek, who first backed Helsing in 2021 with €100 million, defended his increased stake in the controversial company, telling the Financial Times, “The world is being tested in more ways than ever before. That has sped up the timeline. There’s an enormous realisation that it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield.”

Founded in 2021 by gaming developer Torsten Reil, former German defence official Gundbert Scherf, and machine learning engineer Niklas Köhler, Helsing SE builds AI-powered software and autonomous drones such as the HX‑2, promising real-time battlefield analysis and autonomous capabilities. The company claims to sell only to “democratic governments.”

Who is Daniel Ek?

Ek, 42, is the co-founder and CEO of Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform. According to Forbes, his net worth is currently estimated at around $10 billion. He launched Prima Materia in 2021 with a pledge to invest €1 billion in “deep tech” projects across Europe.

Born on February 21, 1983, in Stockholm, Sweden, Ek grew up in the Rågsved district. He graduated from IT-Gymnasiet in Sundbyberg in 2002 and went on to study engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, but ultimately dropped out.

Ek married Sofia Levander in 2016 at Lake Como, with Bruno Mars performing and Chris Rock officiating at the wedding. The couple has two children together.

Calls for boycott

The latest investment has sparked outrage on social media and among musicians, many of whom have accused Ek of funnelling subscription fees into warfare rather than paying artists fairly.

On TikTok, content creator Ice Man Mir criticised Ek’s move: “He just took $690 million and put it into this AI drone company that’s literally just going to make military warfare… instead of Spotify paying that money to artists, he’s taking all the subscription money from the listeners and say, ‘You know what, we’re going to take this entire industry of music and fund it to go kill people’. Got it.”

Commenters quickly joined in, with one saying, “Unregulated capitalism always leads to fascism.” Another wrote, “Spotify boycott anyone?” while others asked, “Where do I go now instead of Spotify?” One user said, “Why is it that when people become hugely rich, they lose any integrity and morality?” Another simply added, “I’m cancelling my subscription.”