AI News Monitor

Co-founder of Paris-based AI start-up believes that the presence or lack of national AI infrastructure will create an economic gulf between countries.

Arthur Mensch, CEO of French start-up, Mistral AI, has warned that AI will cause a significant economic shift around the globe. Speaking on an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) podcast, the tech leader said that AI will impact the GDP of every country by double digits.

Nations need to establish their own AI infrastructure to avoid becoming financially dependent, according to Mensch. He compared AI to electricity, and how important generating its own electricity became for each nation when electric power was discovered. The Mistral CEO believes that lack of AI infrastructure will force countries to become dependent on others, which can create an economic gap.

“Every nation needs to worry about it,” said Mensch. “…because if they don’t manage to set up infrastructure at the right place, that means that money might flow back to other countries. So, that’s kind of changing the economic equilibrium.”

This follows recent announcements in AI upgrade by the leading superpowers—the US and China. In the first week of his presidency, President Donald Trump announced Stargate, the $500 billion project that would secure infrastructure for AI growth in the US. However, the release of Chinese model, DeepSeek, only a few days later proved that China was ready to compete with the US.

European countries have discussed the need for Europe-based systems to help them reduce their dependency on the US and China. At the global AI summit held in Paris last month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced over €100 billion ($107 billion) in AI investment. Paris hopes that this can to some extent contend with Trump’s $500 billion investment in the US. Indeed, Macron called the project France’s version of Stargate.

The European Commission also announced a €200 billion combination of public and private investment in AI. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the project, tagged InvestAI, was a way for Europe to compete and become “an AI continent.”

Some experts fear, however, that these planned projects could be years away, while the US and China continue to move several steps ahead.

Mistral AI would benefit from any AI investment in Europe. The Paris-based start-up has been seriously hamstrung due to limited infrastructure and funding on the continent. On the other hand, its competitors in the US such as OpenAI and Anthropic have much deeper pockets. That is without mentioning tech giants Microsoft, Google, Meta, and xAI with vast resources at their disposal.

Nevertheless, Mistral is held in high regard in Europe, with the continent seeing the French startup as a rallying point for competition in the AI big league. Mensch has admitted that this gives the company an edge. European companies want to partner with a Europe-based firm. The CEO hopes that the continent can push for its own infrastructure. Otherwise, it would be forced to keep buying from other countries who have built theirs. “At the end of the day that isn’t great, because it creates some dependencies,” he said.