“I must say that Europe does not have many assets. » Before the deputies of the commission of inquiry into structural dependencies and systemic vulnerabilities in the digital sector, Tuesday May 12, Arthur Mensch did not seek to soften his diagnosis. The boss of Mistral AI, considered one of the main faces of French artificial intelligence, painted an uncompromising portrait of European weaknesses in the face of American and Chinese giants in the sector.
Created in 2023 with Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, the French company originally intended to offer a European alternative to the large American generative AI groups. “We realized that we were heading towards a fairly clear oligopoly”recalled Arthur Mensch to parliamentarians. According to Le Figarothree years later, Mistral AI has nearly 1,000 employees and has France Work, CMA CGM, Stellantis or even TotalEnergies among its clients.
But despite this rapid rise, the leader believes that Europe is accumulating handicaps. According to him, the continent suffers from overly heavy regulation and a market incapable of functioning as a true unified economic bloc. “We have heavier regulations, we have a market that is fragmented”he regretted. Before adding: “The problem we see is that this market is materializing a little too slowly. »
“We must stop thinking of sovereignty as isolationism”
For Arthur Mensch, this European slowness directly favors American players, capable of investing massively before demand even really exists. In particular, he highlights the strategic importance of data centers and the electricity necessary for AI models to operate. “There is an energy surplus in France, around 9 gigawatts on average”he explains.
But this surplus risks, according to him, being quickly captured by the most financially powerful groups. The boss of Mistral AI pleads for a much more offensive vision of European digital sovereignty. “We must stop thinking of sovereignty as isolationism. In a world where you import all of your digital services to UNITED STATESyou have no leverage »he still judges.
No “unified taxation”
Beyond infrastructure, Arthur Mensch also criticizes the European administrative environment. He denounces the difficulties linked to tax and regulatory differences between Member States, which force companies to multiply legal structures and local procedures. “You can’t have a unified market if you don’t have a unified form of taxation,” he believes, also pointing out “a pile of regulations” between GDPR, copyright legislation and AI Act.
According to him, this complexity fuels a discourse of European withdrawal already widely relayed by American investors. “Entrepreneurs (…) go to the United States. You have investors who say to themselves: “No, but Europe has lost, it regulates too much””he observes. A story that he now considers internalized in Europe itself: “It’s a form of colonialism. »
The hearing also made it possible to address military issues linked to artificial intelligence. While American companies in the sector are strengthening their partnerships with the Pentagon, Mistral AI is already working with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. Arthur Mensch assumes this collaboration and refuses to claim a right of control over the final use of its technologies. “The army is sovereign, it has a democratic legitimacy that we do not have”he decides. The manager even believes that AI has become essential in contemporary defense strategies. “You have armies, like the Russian armywhich massively use artificial intelligence in their drones. If you are not able to have counter-systems activated by AI, you do not have sufficient deterrence. »
“Today, our engineers no longer write a line of code”
Arthur Mensch also warns of the economic upheavals to come. While AI promises major productivity gains, it also risks leading to job losses and an accelerated transformation of the labor market. “Today, our engineers no longer write a line of code”he explains, referring to changes “very fast” in software development.
Another fear mentioned: increasing pressure on energy resources. “Everyone wants electricity and there isn’t enough”he warns, announcing possible “usage conflicts” and an increase in prices. Ultimately, the leader also fears a worsening of the European trade deficit if the continent remains dependent on American infrastructure for its digital services.
