'It's just a matter of time': why AI could help Europe create its own Apple or Google

Arthur Mensch is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs hoping to solve a longstanding problem with the European economy: its failure to produce a Silicon Valley-style tech behemoth. The 31-year-old Frenchman is chief executive of Mistral, a startup that achieved a €240m (£206m) valuation in its first round of financing – four weeks after it was founded. And he believes artificial intelligence (AI) will be the great leveller, putting Europe on a par with its previously uncatchable competitors across the Atlantic. Mistral develops large language models – the technology that underpins AI tools such as ChatGPT – and Mensch believes this could hand the initiative to a continent producing a new wave of fast-moving startups. "Given the new tools we have to hand, like large language models, everything has to be rebuilt around them. When something has to be rebuilt, it gives new players an advantage because they can go fast," he says.