[Oras]

Sounds like they don’t have a moat at all. It’s like software consultancy with a data centre. And then the article mentions many customers using these models on prem (so data centre is not really a plus).

What’s stopping any country backed startup from fine-tuning small open source models?

[whiplash451]

Maybe because distilling small models from bigger ones that you control gives you better small models than fine-tuning from bigger models you don't control?

(I am not claiming it is the case, but stating this as an assumption)

[vb-8448]

No one in Europe will buy from a random startup, the consultancy part is a MUST to do businesses with big corps, banks, finances, insurances, governs, public administration ...

[Oras]

Mistral is a startup that happened to raise 100M. I said in my comment a “country backed startup”, which mistral is

[vb-8448]

The "consultancy" is their moat: if there are already in the company they will catch up most of the opportunities despite not having the SOTA model.

In Europe procurement cycles are insane, if you are somehow a "trusted vendor" you get a priority line, otherwise you need a lot of political support or ties with some C-level in a company.

Moreover, a lot of companies don't want to send their data to external providers(unless it's Microsoft, but it's a different story ...)

[rldjbpin]

their moat is where they are based from and that they are making their own models. they have been before the distillation era in the open-weights model.

their model's efficacy for the mainstream comparisons may not be up to the task, but they are pivoting to their own lane for it. but the scope beyond the local market, it is yet to be seen.