How France’s Mistral Built A $14 Billion AI Empire By Not Being American

ByIain Martin,

Forbes Staff.

W

hen Arthur Mensch, the cofounder and CEO of Mistral, France’s leading AI company, takes the stage at the AI Action Summit in the center of New Delhi, India, in February, he draws only a small crowd. Nearly everyone would rather listen to sermons from OpenAI’s Sam Altman or Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, preaching the promises and perils of superintelligent AIs.

But the small cadre of executives and researchers in Mensch’s audience catch a very different message: The rest of the world should control its own AI destiny, not Silicon Valley. And Mensch can help them do it. “AI should be a tool for empowerment, not dominance,” he proclaims.