Earlier quoted context omitted.
One is american, the other is european It's the same with gaming When Microsoft is killing physical in 2023 to push for Gamepass and digital only, it's labeled as "progress and infrastructure planning", when it's Sony that does it, it's labeled as "greed and anti consumerism" Hopefully more people get attentive to how the industry & the media works, and how US Big Tech manages to kill any form of alternative
> When Microsoft is killing physical in 2023 to push for Gamepass and digital only, it's labeled as "progress and infrastructure planning", when it's Sony that does it, it's labeled as "greed and anti consumerism" Microsoft got massive pushback when they did it, Sony even made ad making fun of it. Selective memory much ?
Mistral raises €3B
401–410 of 612 posts
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#402Mistral is an interesting AI company because they clearly have a contrarian business strategy to the other AI labs. They're also landing big customers in Europe for the right reasons. People dump on them because they're not benchmaxxxing which is pretty shortsighted - do you really want to be in a benchmark arms race with China, or do you want to make money and deploy sovereign AI compute in Europe?
When Apple is not racing for the frontier it's a strategy, but when it's Mistral it's a mistake. The two companies have read the market the same. It's always very dangerous for first movers and their investors, and the commodification of intelligence seems even more likely each time a chinese open model release. It's less exciting to do business that way, but if you're building to stand the test of time, it's wiser t…
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#403Last I saw job offers for mistral (engineering, Paris) it advertised 90k euros base salary. Not sure how they’re intending to compete with the US when even a top AI lab can’t afford to be competitive :-/
> Last I saw job offers for mistral (engineering, Paris) it advertised 90k euros base salary. Not sure how they’re intending to compete with the US when even a top AI lab can’t afford to be competitive :-/ Does the US position come with 5 weeks paid vacation? When the US position gets hit with layoffs, do you still have comprehensive healthcare and unemployment coverage? Yes, EU software Eng salaries are a lot lower…
Maybe this appeal to mediocrity in a competitive market explains Mistral's mediocre performance.
I'm Australian. We have 4 weeks paid leave a year, comprehensive healthcare and unemployment coverage.
Most of my career I avoided taking leave, and I'd usually just get it paid out when I left. Who wants to take leave when you are doing the most interesting, most important thing you can imagine doing?
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
> researchers may be looking for greener pastures. Is that still a thing? Or have those would leave have left, after all, it's been ~6 years of Trump already.
Sort of yes. But it's nowhere near as much as some would like to believe. It mostly concerns those who have unclear immigration status, had their funding cut off, or don't care about money. Now, that is quite a lot of people. But not nearly enough to reverse decades of brain drain.
Ah ok, thanks for the clarification. I thought this would be more to do with politics.
So we’ll end up with ex-US folks starting up those European companies that decouple Europe from US tech! (Thats tongue in cheek.)
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#405Mistral is an interesting AI company because they clearly have a contrarian business strategy to the other AI labs. They're also landing big customers in Europe for the right reasons. People dump on them because they're not benchmaxxxing which is pretty shortsighted - do you really want to be in a benchmark arms race with China, or do you want to make money and deploy sovereign AI compute in Europe?
When Apple is not racing for the frontier it's a strategy, but when it's Mistral it's a mistake. The two companies have read the market the same. It's always very dangerous for first movers and their investors, and the commodification of intelligence seems even more likely each time a chinese open model release. It's less exciting to do business that way, but if you're building to stand the test of time, it's wiser t…
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's more to life than money past a certain point, I'd rather live in the Alps on a lower salary.
You dont even live in the Alps with 90K lmao. And if you expect top performance, you should expect top salary. Or at least something competitive. 90K for a company like Mistral is a bit embarrassing.
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was in Germany a few years ago, I was browsing jobs available in France and most software development jobs were under $55K USD. I don't know how you're supposed to survive on that. You can probably make more money as a waiter. Germany is not so great either in that sense though at least in crypto sector, the pay was reasonable... Though as a job it was total BS. UK was pretty good at some point (though all the…
> When I was in Germany a few years ago, I was browsing jobs available in France and most software development jobs were under $55K USD. I don't know how you're supposed to survive on that. You can probably make more money as a waiter. Salaries are calculated differently in France, Germany, US etc. For example working in Germany you're likely to fork a huge amount monthly to your health insurance. It actually makes i…
2200€ in my pocket each month with health care and taxes paid.
My yearly gross salary 39_000€. My yearly super-gross salary (what the company actually pay) 54_000€.
Actually the company paid less due to CIR (https://entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr/vosdroits/F23533) I don't the number but at absolute minimum the company could have paid 31_320€.
I live in the south east of france not in a big city and I have 13 years of xp.
And to compare to the cost of life :
- 200g of bread is 1€.
- tomato 4€/kg
- beef 27-40€/kg
- 100m2 individual house 350_000€
- 60m2 flat 150_000€Re: Mistral raises €3B
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
can you elaborate what are their fundamental flaws that are not fixable by funds?
> can you elaborate what are their fundamental flaws that are not fixable by funds? Culture. In terms of output, EU working culture is inferior to American/Chinese working culture. Work life balance is irrelevant for frontier/sovereign AI.
Checks out
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it bears repeating: regulation (even well meaning regulation) is not free and it always favors incumbents and hinders startups.
That's not true. EU regulations like the AI Act and Digital Services Act have different obligations and requirements for large and small businesses and that amount can't be zero because being a small business doesn't give you a free pass to cause damage to society. I'd be curious to hear about specific examples of AI regulation that affect small businesses without a good reason.
> that amount can't be zero because
Sounds like you're agreeing with my point.
Re: Mistral raises €3B
#410Mistral is an interesting AI company because they clearly have a contrarian business strategy to the other AI labs. They're also landing big customers in Europe for the right reasons. People dump on them because they're not benchmaxxxing which is pretty shortsighted - do you really want to be in a benchmark arms race with China, or do you want to make money and deploy sovereign AI compute in Europe?
When Apple is not racing for the frontier it's a strategy, but when it's Mistral it's a mistake. The two companies have read the market the same. It's always very dangerous for first movers and their investors, and the commodification of intelligence seems even more likely each time a chinese open model release. It's less exciting to do business that way, but if you're building to stand the test of time, it's wiser t…