European AI. A playbook to own it • Hacker News Board

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#101

Post by 0xbadcafebee » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:41 AM UTC

zmmmmm wrote: post #49

The glaring number to me is only 5% of VC funds vs 52% in the US. That's 10x more opportunity despite roughly comparable economies. As long as that is true, it seems like it will always be impossible to get an organic startup industry working in the EU. Any startup that is any good will almost certainly end up getting a round of investment from the US and most likely move their base of operations there. I wonder if r…

This assumes one would want a startup industry. It's a bit like wishing your country had more private equity.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#102

Post by weakened_malloc » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 1:43 AM UTC

r-w wrote: post #94

abletonlive wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looking at the US culture, it's not hard to see entrepreneurship as a societal disease. It's easy if you're in some nihilistic and cynical echochamber like reddit. For everybody else, entrepreneurship is still quite celebrated and seen as a positive for society.

Really? Who do you know who isn't working in tech and finds something to celebrate in entrepreneurship?

In Australia one of the most common paths to wealth outside of owning property is literally taking up a trade as an apprentice, then after a couple of years beginning your own plumbing/electrician/brick laying/etc business.

That's still very highly celebrated. Interestingly enough, people with Mediterranean backgrounds also feel this way (there's lots of crossover here btw).

Owning your own business is one of the best things one can do in that culture. There's a story in a Taleb book about a Lebanese (I think?) man who went on to become one of the execs at Mobil or some other oil company, and his mother was still disappointed that he didn't own his own company.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#103

Post by sbinnee » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

dwedge wrote: post #9

I've tried Mistral a few times, at first it seemed promising (though lagging) but at some point it seems like they stopped focusing on AI and shifted their focus to being a mouthpiece for EU policy and pushing for regulation. I can't really take any of their announcements seriously anymore. A couple of weeks ago they were calling for a European AI tax to pay creatives.

I lived and studied in France. So it's only natural for me to try out Mistral's every major updates. I had the same sentiment with you, that their models were just a bit lagging. But on the other hand, I understand their shift. Their value is not in SOTA coding, math, or puzzle solving performance in my opinion. They will catch up. To me it makes sense that they focus on something else, how to scale through talents and propagate their models with policies in Europe.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#104

Post by fakedang » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 2:35 AM UTC

weakened_malloc wrote: post #100

valkmit wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of these are mostly well-meaning but have backfired. The only way an international business is going to consider investing in French workers, for example, is with relatively low salaries to offset the inability to fire them. It's counterintuitive but if you allow "failing fast", you lower risk of new engagements, and this allows for more speculative bets on ideas and people. Make it difficult to evict tenants?…

This is something you talk to people about that are in the western world but outside of the US (which includes me) but whenever I have the conversation people just can't grasp it. The US, by having bad worker protections and privacy abusing tech companies, etc. have been able to pave the way for extreme amounts of innovation that just wouldn't happen anywhere else. The rest of the world then effectively has innovatio…

I also found most US startup opportunities to be practically enabled by shitty service provided by the incumbents, whether it is the state or the banks or the healthcare system.

Take Cost Plus Drugs, for instance. Or companies enabling faster cash transfers over the internet, like Paypal. Or healthcare insurance plans from Oscar Health or prescriptions from Truepill. Or videos made by Khan Academy, which are currently in use in many schools across the US.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#105

Post by tjwebbnorfolk » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 2:37 AM UTC

shimman wrote: post #81

enejej wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not all that convinced on the regulation part. Ultimately it’s all about investing money to create real assets that generate cash flows. One can side step regulations to some extent whilst developing a product (nobody cares/notices until you are actually growing fast) and then deal with regulations later. Uber already showed this and the leading AI firms are following the same act - having ripped off a lot of con…

Yes, let's ignore regulations that provide people with stable jobs, societies, and countries. Afterall what good is democracy when the alternative is making more money?

No one is saying "ignore regulations". The US has regulations also. Every country does.

The EU has taken it to another level.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#106

Post by esafak » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 3:06 AM UTC

shimman wrote: post #80

miohtama wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There cannot be echo chamber as long as entrepreneurship is not seen as generally acceptable in European culture

Looking at the US culture, it's not hard to see entrepreneurship as a societal disease. Let's not act like "entrepreneurship" is necessary at all to develop technology. Western governments simply have no ability to find their own destination as any attempt to get off the US big tech ramp comes with threats to destroy defense treaties, weapons contracts, and tariffs with their major ally. Hardly anything to do with "e…

Entrepreneurship is the fountain of wealth. What else are you going to do, extract natural resources?

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#107

Post by esafak » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 3:08 AM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #26

I don't understand why European providers can't just host open-weight models developed by the Chinese, or distill Google/OpenAI/Anthropic models to produce their own models on the the cheap. Nobody acts like you need to invent steel to have a steel mill.

So they don't have to worry about getting shut out if the Chinese stop open sourcing.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#108

Post by esafak » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 3:10 AM UTC

LelouBil wrote: post #99

outside1234 wrote: post #88

We also need to talk about work schedules. Nobody at Anthropic is taking a 5 week summer break or working a 35 hour week. Europe can be a top player in AI —- but there is a cost.

Maybe they should. Taking a break and looking at the direction AI is advancing won't hurt.

They'd have to convince the Chinese to do the same.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#109

Post by hobofan » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #26

I don't understand why European providers can't just host open-weight models developed by the Chinese, or distill Google/OpenAI/Anthropic models to produce their own models on the the cheap. Nobody acts like you need to invent steel to have a steel mill.

There are plenty of European providers that do. That just doesn't get much publicity, as that's just part of normal business now and not part of AI startup hype cycles.

Re: European AI. A playbook to own it

#110

Post by joe_mamba » Mon, Apr 13, 2026, 5:29 AM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #88

We also need to talk about work schedules. Nobody at Anthropic is taking a 5 week summer break or working a 35 hour week. Europe can be a top player in AI —- but there is a cost.

>Nobody at Anthropic is taking a 5 week summer break or working a 35 hour week

The people working at Mistral, Expedition 33, or other top successful software coming out of the EU, most likely also aren't working only 35 hours/week either. In fact some probably squeeze some work on weekends too out of dedication and pressure to meet deadlines.

In a lot of Austrian SW companies for example, have "all-in" contracts where you waive your rights to the scrutiny of the standard 38,5h/week in exchange for a "higher" salary with longer work hours and less time tracking. Similar cases in France I believe.

The 35h/week European meme people here parrot, you mostly see only in civil servants, old established monopolistic companies with moats and strong unions, not in scrappy start-up trying to make it and fix a bug before release, or semiconductor companies fighting a tape-out.

So no, work hours aren't what's limiting EU startups.