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March 30, 2026

Making the most of Europe’s second mover advantage

Tech sovereignty is a tough game — so maybe the region's startups should be playing differently

John Thornhill

4 min read

Mistral is making a valiant stand flying the blue-and-gold-star flag for European frontier AI models. When it comes to the cost-to-capability ratio of training its models, the French AI darling is more competitive than it has any right to be. 

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John Thornhill

John Thornhill is Sifted’s founder and innovation editor of the Financial Times. He tweets from @johnthornhillft

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