The particularly virulent and anti-European speech by US Vice President JD Vance earlier this year came as a slap in the face to the old continent. "European leaders don't like being spoken to like that," confirmed Arthur Mensch, CEO of the French startup Mistral AI. In the Wall Street Journal, he explains that these transatlantic tensions are boosting demand for "sovereign" AI tools.
AI made in Europe
More and more European companies and governments are seeking to free themselves from American technologies, which directly benefits Mistral, whose generative (and open source) AI models compete with those of OpenAI, Google, and even the Chinese company DeepSeek.
Mistral plans to build a 40-megawatt data center south of Paris, equipped with 18,000 Nvidia chips, to host its models and offer a European alternative to American infrastructure. This center could reach 100 megawatts in 18 months. "Using American companies' AI gives the United States leverage over Europe," asserts the executive. The startup, which has just unveiled a new reasoning model, is worth more than $6 billion. A far cry from OpenAI's $300 billion, but Mistral is now a recognized player in the AI sector, with arguments to put forward. And even if the company generates half of its revenue internationally, its position could well be an asset: Europe plans to invest $144 billion in AI by 2028. For Arthur Mensch, the region can regain the technological advantage after missing the cloud shift: "This time, we have a real card to play: our software offering is up to par, we can capture these new uses." Willpower alone won't do everything, and without talking about decoupling from the United States—which seems unrealistic—Europe desperately needs to beef up its cloud and AI capabilities, if only to meet the needs of businesses and governments in the region.
Source: WSJ
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