At Vivatech, Emmanuel Macron hails 'historic' partnership between Mistral AI and Nvidia
On the stage of the Vivatech trade fair on Wednesday, June 11, Emmanuel Macron was full of praise for the initiative announced just hours earlier by the French artificial intelligence start-up, Mistral AI, and the American world leader in AI chips, Nvidia. "This [partnership] is a game changer, because it will increase our sovereignty and it will allow us to do much more."
"It's historic," the president added to CEOs Arthur Mensch and Jensen Huang, who stood by his side. Beginning in 2026, Mistral will launch a European platform dedicated to AI and powered by Nvidia processors.
"You are moving up the value chain," Macron said, addressing Mistral AI. Until now, the start-up, founded in 2023, had mainly developed AI models competing with those of OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or Meta, whether for language processing, computer code assistance or more complex tasks requiring "reasoning," as demonstrated by the launch on June 10 of Magistral.
But with "Mistral Compute," unveiled that same day with Nvidia, the company took its first step into the field of computing power, a domain with ever-increasing needs to train and operate AI models. "This is a decisive step, as it allows us to control a critical vertical in the value chain of this technology," explained Mensch in the press release.
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Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
How has wealth inequality changed across Europe since the 2008 crisis?
The richest 10% in the eurozone held 57.3% of total net household wealth in the final quarter of 2024. This is 2.8 percentage points higher than in the same period of 2009, when their share was 54.5%, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). Wealth inequality has increased in some parts of Europe while declining in others in the period from 2008 to 2023, according to UBS's Global Wealth Report 2024. The report notes that wealth inequality has generally risen in most of Eastern Europe, while the data for Western Europe is 'extremely mixed'. So, which European countries have seen the greatest increases or decreases in inequality since the 2008 financial crisis? And which countries in Europe have the highest disparities between rich and poor? UBS's report covers 12 European countries and uses the Gini coefficient as the primary measure of inequality. A higher Gini coefficient indicates greater wealth inequality, with 0 representing perfect equality. Net worth — or 'wealth' — is defined as the total value of a household's financial and real assets (primarily housing), minus its debts. In 2023, the Wealth Inequality Gini Index ranged from 46 in Belgium to 75 in Sweden, among the 12 European countries covered. Sweden recorded the highest level of wealth inequality by far, followed by Germany (68), Switzerland (67), and Austria (65). Belgium stood out with the lowest Gini score of 46, indicating the highest level of equal wealth distribution in the list. It was a clear outlier, as the closest countries — Italy and Spain — both had significantly higher scores of 57. France and the UK — two of Europe's major economies — both fall below the 12-country average Gini index of 62.1, with scores of 59 and 61 respectively. Among the Nordic countries, Denmark (62) and Finland (64) were around the average, as was the Netherlands (64). Looking at the change in the Gini Index between 2008 and 2023, Finland recorded the highest increase, rising by 21%, from 53 to 64. Spain followed closely, with a 20% increase, from 47 to 57. Italy also saw a notable rise of around 15%, going from 50 to 57, while Denmark's index increased by 11%, from 56 to 62. According to the UBS report, wealth inequality also increased in the UK by roughly 8% and in France by 5% between 2008 and 2023. Sweden, which had the highest Gini Index among the countries examined, saw only a slight rise of 1% during this period. Wealth inequality declined in five out of the 12 countries examined. Belgium saw the largest drop, with an 11% decrease in its Gini Index—from 51 to 46. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland each recorded a roughly 5% decline, while the Netherlands saw a 4% reduction over the same period. Veli-Matti Törmälehto, a senior researcher at Statistics Finland, noted that surveys carried out by his own organisation also indicate a rise in wealth inequality. 'In general, the increase in wealth inequality in Finland can be attributed to a shift from real assets towards financial assets in households' average portfolio,' Törmälehto told Euronews Business. 'The role of housing wealth has been important, with weak and even declining housing prices and uneven regional patterns, as well as declining homeownership rate.' He also noted that financial wealth has continued to grow, which contributes to rising inequality, as these assets are heavily concentrated among the wealthiest households. According to Statistics Finland, the share of total wealth held by the wealthiest 10% of households increased from 43.9% in 2009 to 51.8% in 2023. Arthur Apostel, a researcher at Ghent University, pointed out that an ECB study shows a slight decline in Belgium's wealth inequality — from 0.71 in 2010 to 0.69 in 2023 —representing a 2.8% decrease. This differs from what the UBS report claims. Apostel argued that there is insufficient evidence to confidently conclude that wealth inequality in Belgium has meaningfully decreased in recent years. According to the Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), the share of net wealth held by the top 5% in Belgium declined from 49.3% in 2010 to 44.8% in 2023. Both Apostel and Törmälehto recommend caution when using UBS figures, especially for cross-country comparisons, as the report relies on estimates drawn from a mix of micro- and macro-level data. Gini Index scores may not clearly show how unequally wealth is distributed, partly because they're not very sensitive to the extremes. But wealth shares held by top percentiles provide a more detailed picture. While this breakdown is not included in the 2024 UBS report, it is available in the 2023 edition, which presents data from 2022. In 2022, the richest 10% of households in Sweden held 74.4% of total wealth, while in Belgium they held just 43.5%. These two countries had the highest and lowest wealth inequality Gini Index scores, respectively, among the 12 countries included in 2023. The top 10% of households held 63% of total wealth in Germany and 62.5% in Switzerland— placing both countries just behind Sweden in both the Gini Index and the share of wealth held by the top 10%. While the rankings of some countries shift slightly when looking at the top 5% or top 1% of wealth holders, the overall trends in wealth distribution remain consistent. The report emphasised that changes in inequality alone don't necessarily indicate whether people are better or worse off in different countries. It suggests that absolute wealth levels also need to be taken into consideration 'in order to paint a comprehensive picture of a society's wealth profile'. In other words, it's also important to look at how much wealth people have, as well as how it is divided. The Irish government on Wednesday defeated a cross-party motion that called on it to stop the Central Bank of Ireland from facilitating the sale of Israeli bonds. The motion, presented by the Social Democrats and supported by Sinn Féin, Labour, and People Before Profit, was intended to block what many refer to as 'Israeli war bonds'. The instruments provide economic support to Israel while it conducts military operations in Gaza, and Ireland's Central Bank currently approves the sale of these bonds in EU markets. Bonds issued by non-EU countries must be approved by the financial regulator in one member state before they can be sold within the single market. The bill failed with 85 votes against and 71 in favour, upholding the government's position. Several TDs, Irish members of parliament, argued that Ireland should not be involved in financial instruments that fund destruction in Gaza. The Central Bank estimated that Israel has raised between €100mn and €130mn from their sale. Taoiseach Micheál Martin nonetheless rejected claims that the Irish government is complicit in genocide by allowing the facilitation of the bond sales. Despite publicly acknowledging the severity of Israel's attacks in Gaza, he maintained that Ireland must oppose the military action within legal and diplomatic channels. As such, the government argued that it cannot legally direct the Central Bank due to its independence under Irish and EU law. When the same objection arose last month in response to a similar motion from Sinn Féin, party leader Mary Lou McDonald argued: 'We have over 20 pages of independent, robust legal opinion clearly stating that the bill is compliant with Irish law, European law and international law.' As per the EU's Prospectus Regulation, non-EU countries like Israel must meet disclosure and legal standards to issue bonds in the bloc. If those standards are met, the Central Bank doesn't have the authority to reject bond applications. 'The Central Bank cannot decide to impose sanctions for breaches or alleged breaches of international law. It is for international bodies such as the UN or the EU to determine how to respond to breaches or alleged breaches of international law,' said Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf. He added that the Genocide Convention applies to the Irish State, not regulatory bodies like the Central Bank. The reason why the Irish Central Bank is at the core of this issue — despite Ireland being one of the EU countries that has been the most vocally pro-Palestine — is Brexit. When the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Israel chose Ireland to be the home member state to approve its bonds. Prior to 2021, this responsibility fell to the UK. The current prospectus for Israeli bonds is set to expire in September, but Central Bank officials believe that Israeli authorities will likely initiate the renewal process several weeks beforehand. In the absence of new EU sanctions or changes to existing legislation, the Central Bank will remain legally bound to approve the bond prospectus, regardless of the political fallout. Meanwhile, protesters have been gathering for months outside the seat of the parliament, Leinster House, and the Central Bank, demanding that the government block Israeli bond sales.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
'We're done with Teams': German state hits uninstall on Microsoft
In less than three months' time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft's ubiquitous programs at work. Instead, the northern state will turn to open-source software to "take back control" over data storage and ensure "digital sovereignty", its digitalisation minister, Dirk Schroedter, told AFP. "We're done with Teams!" he said, referring to Microsoft's messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call -- via an open-source German program, of course. The radical switch-over affects half of Schleswig-Holstein's 60,000 public servants, with 30,000 or so teachers due to follow suit in coming years. The state's shift towards open-source software began last year. The current first phase involves ending the use of Word and Excel software, which are being replaced by LibreOffice, while Open-Xchange is taking the place of Outlook for emails and calendars. Over the next few years, there will also be a switch to the Linux operating system in order to complete the move away from Windows. 'Digital dependencies' The principle of open-source software is to allow users to read the source code and modify it according to their own needs. The issue of the power wielded by American tech titans has been thrown into sharper relief by Donald Trump's return to the White House and the subsequent rise in US-EU tensions. In the case of Microsoft, there have long been worries about the dominant position it enjoys thanks to it owning both the Windows operating system and a suite of programs found in offices the world over. In 2023, the European Union launched an antitrust investigation against Microsoft over the way it tied Teams to its other programs for businesses. "The geopolitical developments of the past few months have strengthened interest in the path that we've taken," said Schroedter, adding that he had received requests for advice from across the world. "The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies," he said. The government in Schleswig-Holstein is also planning to shift the storage of its data to a cloud system not under the control of Microsoft, said Schroedter. He explained that the state wants to rely on publicly owned German digital infrastructure rather than that of an American company. Taken 'by the throat' Experts point to economic incentives for the sort of shift Schleswig-Holstein is making, as investing in open-source alternatives and training staff to use them often costs less than the licences for Microsoft's programs. This is particularly the case when businesses and public bodies find themselves taken "by the throat" when hit by unexpected extra costs for mandatory updates, said Benjamin Jean from consulting firm Inno3. Schleswig-Holstein hopes that its move away from Microsoft will eventually save it tens of millions of euros. But organisations considering this sort of change have to reckon with resistance from staff who fear upheaval. "If people aren't guided through it, there's an outcry and everyone just wants to go back to how it was before," warned Francois Pellegrini, an IT professor at Bordeaux University. Pioneer administrations The potential pitfalls can be seen in the experience of Munich, whose city administration was a pioneer in using open-source programs in the 1990s. In 2017, the city announced an about-turn, citing a lack of political support and the difficulty of interacting with other systems. But other public bodies are staying the course: France's gendarmerie, around 100,000 strong, has been using the Linux operating system since the 2000s and India's defence ministry was in 2023 reported to have launched a homegrown system called "Maya OS". Across the border from Schleswig-Holstein, in Denmark, reports say that the local governments of Copenhagen and Aarhus are also looking into ditching Microsoft. Another factor that could push the trend is the EU "Interoperable Europe Act", which came into effect last year and encourages the use of open-source software.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
As NATO ups defence spending, can Europe produce the weapons?
But as Europe promises to ramp up defence spending and wean itself from reliance on the United States, a key question looms: can it produce enough weapons? "This is really keeping me up at night, making sure that we not only ramp up spending, but also ramp up defence industrial production," NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday. More than three years into Moscow's war on Ukraine, NATO says Russia's weapons production far outstrips the West's and has warned that the Kremlin could be ready to attack the alliance within five years. The demands on NATO's European members are huge: new hardware targets agreed this month will require the biggest armament spree in decades. Rutte has pushed for a commitment to bolster defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP within seven years, plus 1.5 percent on security-related areas such as infrastructure. That would likely work out as hundreds of billions of extra euros a year. While countries seem largely on board, German defence minister Boris Pistorius last week pointed to one challenge "nobody really discusses". "It is about how much money is really able to be spent... if industry is not able to deliver what we ordered," he told his NATO colleagues. The push to bolster output will be prominent in The Hague with NATO hosting an industry forum alongside the summit. 'Need the orders' After years of underinvestment following the Cold War, the European Union has unveiled a raft of initiatives since Moscow's 2022 invasion. National budgets have increased and Brussels has sought to plug the funding gap with plans that could mobilise a further 800 billion euros ($924 billion). A major focus is making sure most of that money is spent buying weapons in Europe so the continent can stand more on its own two feet. But persistent gripes remain: businesses lack long-term orders, capacity is too low, costs are too high, production times too long and the industry too fragmented. "To some extent, the budgetary debates and the spending debates are behind us. The question is, how do you translate all of that funding into actual capabilities?" Hugues Lavandier, head of aerospace and defence for Europe at McKinsey, told a Brussels conference. Waiting times for new weaponry can stretch for years, and for some key equipment such as longer-range missiles, Europe still relies on the United States. But proponents say the continent has the potential to meet demand -- provided governments and defence firms get a move on. "Our assessment is that we can produce 95 plus percent of whatever we need to credibly deter and be ready," said Francois Arbault, a top official overseeing the defence industry at the European Commission. "But we need the orders and we need that manufacturing power to be actually materialised in additional investment, because you need to ramp up." 'Bang for our buck' Industry leaders say orders are picking up, if not as fast or for as long a period as hoped, and insist businesses are already putting money into expanding. The CEO of Swedish defence giant Saab, Micael Johansson, told AFP his firm increased its workforce by 6,000 people and quadrupled ammunition in recent years. "Absolutely, we can do more -- and fortunately, many of us have invested at risk to increase capacity," he said. "We're getting the signals that demand will be high, but I can't say that I know exactly what target levels we're aiming for." One fear officials have is that a sudden splurge in spending could lead to price hikes. "There's a real risk that we get, you know, less bang for our buck because of inflation," said Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO. "We need to make sure that it's incremental, that it's measured, but that it's sustained." To help smooth out barriers blocking investment, the EU is set next week to unveil a push to strip away red tape. "It cannot be that the defence industry needs to wait five years to have a permit to build a new factory," EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said. "(Russian leader Vladimir) Putin will not wait for us to get our paperwork in order." One way to bolster Europe's capacity long-term could be turning to battle-hardened Ukraine. As Russia's war has raged on, Ukrainian firms have become experts at cost-cutting and the country is now a leader in drone technology. "The Ukrainian industry is very important," said Guntram Wolff at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. © 2025 AFP
