this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025

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Thoughts on European companies with significant US investment (feddit.uk)

submitted 2 days ago by Mobster@feddit.uk to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Most of my tech is US based currently, and I’m trying to change it. An example is moving from OpenAI (US) to Mistral (French).

Then I learnt from someone else that Mistral has significant US investment - more details provided below - output from Mistral.

I was wondering what views others had on this type of relationship? It has put me off Mistral to be honest.

————————

Several of the investors in Mistral AI are based in the United States. These include:

Andreessen Horowitz: A prominent venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California.
Lightspeed Venture Partners: Another major venture capital firm with headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
General Catalyst: A venture capital firm headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
NVIDIA: A technology company known for its graphics processing units (GPUs), based in Santa Clara, California.
Salesforce Ventures: The venture capital arm of Salesforce, headquartered in San Francisco, California.

These investors have contributed significantly to Mistral AI's funding rounds, reflecting a strong interest in the AI sector from U.S.-based venture capital firms and technology companies.

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[–] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago

Apparently the founders have 44% of voting rights. So not even the majority anymore...

Tbh I don't think it's possible to have a promising AI startup in Europe without American investors yeeting their money at it. We probably need to limit this legally.

[–] MoonlightFox@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

There aren't many good alternatives in Europe besides Mistral.

I am not a fan of self-hosting. The reason is maintenance, security and recommendations to others.

I can't tell my friends and family to self-host, but I can tell them to use Mistral instead of ChatGPT.

That leaves us with often using proprietary solutions, and open-source but hosted by the company.

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

I don’t disagree. If there is no alternative then this is better than nothing for most people.

Personally speaking, knowing about the background of some of the investors involved (Andreesen), and their active role in what’s happening in the US, I personally have cooled on using Mistral somewhat. Will still use though if I have to, but have plans to ultimately self-host - will have to make do with a stripped back AI experience.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

someone needs to start some kind of ollama/open webui cooperative

sure it wouldn’t be as nice, but it’d be “enough” and wouldn’t be running for profit

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

Like the idea, but would have no clue how feasible something like that is.

I currently run LLMs locally using ollama, and through the terminal - I know most people would not either want or be able to do this, but I’m glad I have an alternative to the current popular AI services.