Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch brought a pitch sales to the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, urging delegates to the world's largest telecoms that confirmed Barcelona to invest in developing data center infrastructure and “being hyperscalers” to boost regional AI ecosystem.
“We invite more domestic efforts in making more data centers,” he said in an on-stage Q&A in response to a question about whether Europe is directing adequate AI investment.
The Foundational Model Maker is investing in developing its own data center in France, and Mensch noted that it is “moving slightly on the clamp so that we can serve data centers.”
“For me, the AI revolution also brings opportunities to decentralize the cloud,” he also said, promoting “more actors in the field” compared to the current cloud market led by a trio of giant hyperscalers: Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Mensch also called for European players to reduce their reliance on US tech, by buying a homegrown where it was possible-while emphasizing the need to be “pragmatic” because he said there were no alternatives to US in some basic tech infrastructure.
Asked if European lawmakers were supposed to get inspiration from the Trump administration when it came to regulatory collapse, Mensch erased the opportunity to create a full attack on policies such as the AI Act of Bloc. Instead, he suggested that larger headaches for businesses were talking to fragmentation throughout 27 member states of the single EU market.
“We don't care about regulation as a start,” he said. “One thing that, in my opinion, is a difficulty in Europe is market destruction.”
Mensch went to voice support for integration -Included in the telecoms space. “Integration -with the larger tech players can be a owner,” he suggested to industry delegates -saying fewer telcos per EU market would reduce the number of discussions it needed ink with telcos partnerships.
What business is AI startup jockeying to get from the telecoms sector? Mensch said AI will have many implications for network operators because the infrastructure needs to change to accommodate the increasingly “personalized” data flows that AI – Ergo will enable, working with telcos in network upgrading are in the frame.
He also suggested that there were opportunities for making “distribution partnerships” along with the AI consumer product industry industry to ensure that each had access to strong AI systems. “
In France, Mistral has already signed a distribution agreement with a free for Le Chat, its assistant to AI. Free subscribers can access Le Chat Pro at no cost a year, after which it pays regular monthly subscription fees. It is noteworthy that the free is owned by Iliad, a telecom -controlled telecom company Xavier Niel, who is also an investor in Mistral.
In addition, AI can help telcos reduce their operating costs, Mensch said.
“But in the face of AI regulation we are in a feasible state – it's not perfect,” he added about the issue of red tape. He also accepted a “change of view” on the EU policies about the need to invest in AI.
“I think the EU AI Act has come up early, and it's too focused on the technology side – and so we find it difficult to find technological ways to implement it. So we work with regulators to make sure it's resolved,” he added.
Responding to a final question asking about the next tech developments coming down the pipe, Mensch predicted that AI models would be “expert.”
Over the next few years, Mistral will focus on getting data from each relationship between models and people. This expertise will be used to produce better models – “to make a specialized AI system that will be yourself,” as he puts it.
