January 29, 2026
Gov money, dev drama
The Sovereign Tech Fund Invests in Scala
Germany backs Scala: cheers, groans, and RISC‑V dreams
TLDR: Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund is investing €377,300 to harden Scala’s security, polish its core libraries, and ship sbt 2.0. The crowd split: some say public cash shouldn’t back a “niche” language, others point to Scala’s role in RISC‑V hardware and critical systems—making the stakes very real.
Scala just got a €377,300 boost from the German-backed Sovereign Tech Fund to tighten security, clean up core libraries, modernize docs, and ship sbt 2.0—and the comments instantly turned into a taxpayer vs. techie cage match. Coordinated by the Scala Center over two years, the plan even includes a security audit by OSTIF. That’s the news. The drama? Delicious.
Skeptics piled in first: one voice called Scala “niche,” asking why public money’s footing the bill, while another warned that state investments are “a whole new level” of misallocated capital. Nostalgia turned spicy as folks argued Scala’s glory days faded—blame the rough Scala 2→3 jump, faster‑improving Java, Kotlin’s Android bump, Python swallowing data pipelines, and those legendary long compile times (cue the “make coffee while it builds” memes).
Defenders came swinging: if you think Scala’s niche, meet hardware. Commenters hyped Chisel and Chipyard, saying Scala powers open RISC‑V chip design—with dreams of those chips in laptops and phones. Practical devs cheered the stdlib TLC and sbt 2.0 upgrade, but side‑eyed spending on scoverage (test coverage tooling) as paying for “more charts, fewer fixes.” The security audit got cautious thumbs‑ups.
Big picture: Europe’s first publicly funded open‑source agency keeps investing (over €34M across 95 projects since 2022). In the thread, it wasn’t just funding—it was a referendum on what “critical” means. The vibe: equal parts celebration, skepticism, and meme-fueled compile‑time therapy.
Key Points
- •Scala received a €377,300 investment over two years from the Sovereign Tech Fund.
- •Work is coordinated by the Scala Center to improve security, maintenance, and developer experience.
- •The Sovereign Tech Agency, financed by Germany’s digital ministry and a subsidiary of SPRIND, oversees the Fund.
- •Since October 2022, the Sovereign Tech Fund has invested about €34 million in 95 projects.
- •Deliverables include an OSTIF security audit, scoverage improvements, core library maintenance and modernization, documentation upgrades, and a major sbt 2.0 update.