If there is some buzzy in the Tech world, there is a probability that Xavier Niel has caught wind of it. The Hacker-Trehrtigkehrer entrepreneur has a extensive telecommunications empire, sits on the five-member board of Tikok Parent Bytedance and is a big startup champion that counts the French Darling Mistral Ai in his investments.
The billionaire has an enthusiastic technical developments in mind throughout his career. But he also saw innovation.
Europe has produced some promising start -ups in the middle of the generative AI madness such as Mistral Ai and Aleph Alpha. However, the region has to do a lot more to keep up with the global AI race.
Niel warns that Europe has a real shot of showing its promise and creativity on the AI front. But if the boat missed, it could stop being relevant.
“If Europe does not do this right, it will be a very small continent for a few generations,” he told that Finance times In an interview published in November.
What distinguishes European KI startups are their “values” such as privacy and transparency, said Niel. It is too Generate Technical and mathematics-oriented talents at its universities, who could give the region an advantage, what is moving quickly and things break, as the saying says.
“Sure, the world is now moving faster; the resources are bigger. But there will always be two clever children in the world who work from a garage, with a technological vision or a new idea,” said Niel.
The French Mogul, which is estimated to be worth 8.7 billion US dollars, according to Bloomberg Milliardaires Index, is the focus of AI developments. His optimism in Europe’s AI skills has prompted him to develop the world’s largest startup in Paris, Station F. He has it too Coinvested 300 million US dollars In a non -profit AI research laboratory next to Eric Schmidt and Rodolphe Saadé.
Nevertheless, he fears that, if it does not ride the AI shaft, Europe will be reduced to “the most beautiful place in the world for museums”, Niel said to Wired in September. He compared the current AI moment with which search engines became mainstream. Today they are largely operated by American players such as Google and Microsoft Bing.
“If you now want to create a search engine from scratch, you cannot win because you weren’t there 25 years ago,” he said.
Other experts were also concerned about Europe behind them Could impact The region’s security and defense prospects compared to the rest of the world.
What Niel evaluates as one of the strengths in Europe has also led the AI to regulate too hard and write the competitors out of its market. The European Union passed a unique draft of the AI rules, which some consider to be groundbreaking, while others consider this to be restrictive.
In in -depth report In the competitiveness of Europe, former ECB President Mario Draghi emphasized that AI could open up new opportunities if the attitude is correct.
In the meantime, Christian Klein of the German technology company, CEO from SAP said Risks that hold Europe’s startups back. Mark Zuckerberg from Meta and Daniel EK from Spotify gave an open letter in September Echo similar concerns and asked Europe to remedy its “fragmented and inconsistent” regulations for AI.
Companies on the Fortune 500 Europe list that evaluates the largest companies in the region after income is slowly but surely integrating into progressive applications. Ultimately, the strategy of Europe could determine whether it is a winner or a loser to cope with the challenges.
“Simply expressed, developing, starting or simply using technology is more difficult in Europe than somewhere else in the world. In order to stay in the global race, the EU needs a new approach: reduction in the risks of new technology and enabling innovations” told Assets in October.
A version of this story that was originally published Fortune.com on November 18, 2024.
This story was originally on Fortune.com
