Two big industry moves showcased European ambitions to make ground in the AI race.
French startup Mistral AI made its first acquisition, buying a Parisian AI infrastructure company, as it tries to move from simply developing models to becoming a one-stop shop. And a top British AI researcher is looking to raise $1 billion for a new company building “superhuman intelligence,” in what would be the largest-ever European seed round.
David Silver, formerly of Google DeepMind, sparked a flurry of excitement as investors raced to find competitors to US and Chinese AI giants. Europe remains way behind Silicon Valley, though: Mistral’s $14 billion valuation, which makes it Europe’s largest AI firm, is barely 2% of the estimated worth of OpenAI.