Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Xavier Niel, one of Europe\u2019s top technology investors, believes the region can succeed in creating leading artificial intelligence companies even without the billions in capital raised by US competitors \u2014 as long as founders are not tempted to cash out too early. \u201cI think we can create big things with a few hundred million euros,\u201d the French billionaire who made his fortune in telecoms with operator Iliad and now invests broadly in start-ups. This includes backing Paris-based AI group Mistral which has soared to a \u20ac6bn valuation within a year of being founded.\u201cEurope can create competitive AI models today,\u201d he said in an interview with the Financial Times. \u201cBut over the next two or three years, [success] depends on the number of initiatives and the ability of those who are the real geniuses \u2014 those building the best companies \u2014 not to be swallowed up or to sell too quickly.\u201dSuch optimism about European tech is notable given that the continent lost to US and Chinese giants during previous waves of disruption from the internet to social networks, leading the region to distinguish itself more on regulation than innovation. Niel\u2019s view carries weight as a prolific tech investor with deep contacts in Silicon Valley who also sits on the boards of private equity group KKR and TikTok owner ByteDance. Europe has few players to compete against the likes of OpenAI and Google that are building the so-called large language models that underpin AI applications. Some hopefuls such as Germany\u2019s Aleph Alpha have thrown in the towel. Despite his optimism, Niel warned that if AI innovation failed to take root, the region would be \u201cdemoted\u201d in the global economy. It would depend on US and Chinese tools built without its \u201cvalues\u201d, such as privacy and transparency. \u201cIf Europe doesn\u2019t do this right, it will become a very small continent abandoned for a few generations,\u201d he said. France is home to one of the remaining hopefuls in AI models: Mistral, founded last year by a trio of scientists from Google and Meta. Flush with over $1bn in funding, Mistral has developed a large language model that it says is leaner and more capital efficient than better-funded competitors. Although Niel insisted his message not to sell out too early was addressed broadly to European founders, it rings particularly true for Mistral. \u201cFounders need to realise that if a bigger company is offering to buy them at X value then it is probably worth 2 or 3 times that.\u201dNiel has supported the AI ecosystem in France with investment of about \u20ac500mn so far, and said he could eventually deploy billions. A non-profit research lab called Kyutai aims to create open-source AI models \u2014 a project joined by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Niel\u2019s cloud infrastructure company Scaleway runs one of the biggest supercomputers in the European private sector.Niel makes early-stage investments of \u20ac15mn annually through his Kima Ventures fund, and also backed the New Wave fund where he recently intervened to end a power struggle between founders.There is still time to mint AI winners in Europe, Niel said, given the quality of its maths and engineering institutes and how tech giants have yet to establish dominance. Plus, the scale of the opportunity in AI means that \u201cit will not be one company that wins, but dozens or even hundreds,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, the world moves faster now, the resources are greater. But there will always be two clever kids somewhere in the world, working out of a garage, with a technological vision or a new idea.\u201d Niel was once one such a kid, as the 57-year-old iconoclastic entrepreneur recently related in a memoir-like book of interviews titled Une Sacr\u00e9e Envie de Foutre le Bordel (\u201cAn intense urge to stir up trouble\u201d). He dabbled in hacking as a teenager and briefly became an asset for the French domestic spy agency as it was building its first cyber unit. They had him hack then French president Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand\u2019s phone so the agency could get a bigger budget, according to the book. Niel\u2019s first lucrative business was running adults-only sex chat services on Minitel, a rudimentary French network that preceded the internet. But the real breakthrough came in telecoms when he founded Iliad in 1990 as a low-cost challenger when France opened the market to competition. It went public in 2004.Only months after the IPO, Niel was arrested on suspicion of misusing assets and pimping, which was related to investments in sex shops he made with a partner from his Minitel days. He spent a month in jail and was later convicted on the lesser charge. Niel wrote that the judge gave him advice he has never forgotten: you can skim the line between right and wrong but never cross it. Flush from Iliad\u2019s success, Niel invested in technology, real estate, and media such as Le Monde newspaper. He took Iliad private, and expanded his telecoms holdings to around 20 countries, most recently Ukraine. In Paris, Niel built the world\u2019s biggest start-up incubator called Station F and opened a free coding school.As his projects multiplied, Niel took on an ambassador-like role for European tech. When Pavel Durov, the billionaire creator of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested and questioned in France over alleged complicity in criminal activity, his first phone call was to Niel. \u201cWhen I went to prison everyone disappeared on me. So when a friend runs into a problem in France, I\u2019m not the kind of person who doesn\u2019t pick up the phone.\u201dIn September, Niel joined the board of ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, that has been scrutinised in the US and Europe over data privacy, misinformation and security. US President Joe Biden signed a law to ban the platform over national security concerns if its Chinese parent does not divest by 2025. President-elect Donald Trump has said he could reverse the decision \u2014 an eventuality that Niel personally supports. \u201cI think it would be positive for TikTok to continue to exist, with its skilled workforce, in the US. Positive for competition, for citizens, for the improvement of products,\u201d he said.\u201cWhat worries me is that if TikTok comes under pressure, then all the other social networks, including the Americans ones, will also,\u201d he said.Niel said he had been a \u201csmall investor for a long time\u201d and thought being the sole European on the board would help ByteDance\u2019s plans to expand in the region. \u201cWe are capable of welcoming them in Europe and helping them to invest\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. and to understand who we are as we are, [our] way of operating,\u201d he said. For them, \u201cit creates value, and for us, it creates future-oriented investment in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Xavier Niel, one of Europe\u2019s top technology investors, believes the region can succeed in creating leading artificial intelligence companies even without the billions in capital raised by US competitors \u2014 as long as founders are not tempted to cash out too early. \u201cI think<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-149067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}