Before you congratulate Mistral as an achievement of Europe’s ingenuity and a solid response to the dazzling US ecosystem, please do yourself a favour and read this part:
“Founded in April 2023 by engineers formerly employed by Google DeepMind[4] and Meta Platforms,”
When Mistral fans blow the hype about finally we beat the Americans, people laugh them off. True, it’s unfair to compare the US and Europe as the US is big, and Europe small. US is one country while Europe has many countries, making collaboration difficult. True. Let’s say it’s true.
But, when you see the innovation happening in the US, it is very concentrated. Leading Ai companies are surprise, surprise, located in San Francisco. The Silicon Valley itself is indeed very small. I’d say that the US has developed, since long, a great culture. And they are till now, reaping it’s fruits.
The difference between the US and Europe i think is a matter of people and mentality. US people are open and very relatable. People from Europe 100% pretend to be open and relatable. Europe is rigid, the US is flexible. The US also i would argue, loves to attract immigrants. When you are at the edge, worldwide technical talents flock to you. The US is culture-less and likes to discover and experience different cultures. Europe has a cultural legacy to protect and perpetuate.
I talked to people in SF. Even those from other countries who went and worked in Europe. Europe did not sit well with them. Even and specially France. Everything seems to be off in France. First of all the people. This is not criticism, this is reporting.
The people in the US (SV) are friendly. They like to talk, make friends and are very practical. Europe still has consideration but they pointed out to me that’s nowadays it’s not special at all. Be it places, be it culture, be it cuisine. Now people have a window to the world. There are far better cuisine than french cuisine for example.
Europe is doing something not so right, Europoor is even a term nowadays. Part of life is having fun. If work is boring, you don’t want slow-moving people making it even less fun. You’d want to surround yourself with people who like to move forward, who are open to ideas and believe in solid engineering. You don’t want to work with people who drag dragon legal frameworks with them to the office.
So, Mistral, bon vent and wish you more fund raisings, especially from US VCs.