'Europe is kind of waking up': I went to Mistral's summit in Paris and heard a clear message about AI

I snapped a selfie in front of Mistral AI's Summit sign.

Thibault Spirlet/Business Insider

Mistral AI's first summit felt less like a startup conference and more like a campaign rally for Europe's AI ambitions.The French AI startup, founded just three years ago, packed Paris's Le Carrousel du Louvre — the event space beneath the Louvre's famous glass pyramid — on Thursday with executives from SAP, BNP Paribas, Accenture, Airbus, government officials, engineers, and startup founders.Giant screens flanked a catwalk-style stage, and Mistral executives appeared casually dressed in jeans and T-shirts — a look that felt more like Silicon Valley than Paris.Several attendees told me they walked away with the same impression: Europe is finally trying to build its own AI ecosystem rather than relying entirely on American tech giants.

Mistral Summit's vision stage.

Thibault Spirlet/Business Insider