[alephnerd]

> If they do relax regulation (especially on energy generation) sufficiently to unleash the continent's big brained boffins and entrepreneurs on AI

Capital. Capital, capital, capital.

The EU is still not a single unified economy and capital markets remains semi-sovereign.

Every Euro that goes out of (eg.) a Dutch taxpayer's pocket into an (eg.) German domiciled competitor gets pushed back against by national competitors as well as by the government.

You see this with French and German rivalry against Scaleway+OVHCloud versus Hetzner (edited because of early morning brain snafus) to Dassault versus Airbus.

But the issue is, a single unified capital market that overrides national sovereignty also leaves vast swathes of European voters at risk of unemployment via capital flight. You saw this with East Germany's shift towards the AfD following industry's shift to Poland.

So neither industry nor national governments (who remain the overriding power of the EU) have an incentive for a single unified market, and actually remain incentivized to work with outside partners instead.

[blfr]

Both Scaleway and OVH are French and partly made possible by France's inexpensive energy mix.

[alephnerd]

> Both Scaleway and OVH are French

Doh, I meant Hetzner

> partly made possible by France's inexpensive energy mix

Not really. Both developed well before the energy crisis when energy wasn't a significant input for DC construction.

The reason both succeeded is because French conglomerates continue to invest within France and only buy French.

It also didn't hurt that Xavier Niel and Klaba were able to leverage their preexisting telecom business and network.

[dgellow]

I really hope that will push for completion of the single market. I wouldn’t bet on it, but that’s something we should have done a decade ago

[alephnerd]

It won't. Once you actually visit Bruxelles or talk with ex-policymakers you realize they don't actually care to give up sovereign control to the EU.

It's still viewed as a prestige post, and European industries and states will continue to work with partners outside of Europe if it means surviving.

Additonally, capital consolidation within the EU also means subnational capital flight which means layoffs. For example, look at how East Germany shifted hard to AfD after Germany Inc left for Poland. Therefore, when push comes to shove, it becomes politically untenable.

[doctorpangloss]

Okay. Lemme ask you a simple question: why does Dario Amodei live in the United States? Why do his parents live here? What happened?

It's not the first time in recent history frontier technology has been developed and commercialized, before any of this "capital" you are talking about really existed. That's the easy part (print money). The hard part is, taking leadership to convince the citizens of a place to be... what? Do you know?