This Week in European Tech: Apple rents AI. What should Europe build?

<p>Apple’s decision to rent rather than build its core AI model raises a wider question for Europe: where should companies own the technology, and where does it make more sense to build on top of the best models available?</p><p>That is one of the themes in this episode of This Week in European Tech, featuring <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Dan Bowyer</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/madsjensen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Mads Jensen</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankasavjani/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Priyanka Savjani</a> of <a href="https://www.superseed.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">SuperSeed</a>, alongside <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjscott/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Andrew J Scott</a> of <a href="https://www.7pc.vc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">7percent Ventures</a>. </p><p>They also discuss where Mistral and Wayve can compete, why business data is becoming more valuable and how the AI infrastructure boom is starting to reshape capital markets.</p><p><strong>Highlights</strong></p><ul><li>Why Apple may have made “renting AI” more respectable</li><li>Where Mistral could find an advantage beyond the frontier-model race</li><li>Why business data is becoming one of AI’s most valuable assets</li><li>Why governments should act as customers, not just grant providers</li><li>How AI infrastructure spending is moving into debt markets</li><li>Why new forms of AI reasoning are raising questions around observability and safety</li></ul><p><strong>Timestamps</strong></p><ul><li>(00:00) Intro</li><li>(03:00) Broadcom and the AI chip race</li><li>(06:00) Matt Clifford, Anthropic and where AI power sits</li><li>(08:00) Apple rents AI: build or buy?</li><li>(12:00) nScale and the numbers behind its AI infrastructure story</li><li>(14:00) Wayve, Waymo and the autonomous driving race</li><li>(17:00) Why governments should become startup customers</li><li>(18:00) Europe, capital flows and the AI kill switch debate</li><li>(21:00) Thinking Machines, Mistral and the open-source AI race</li><li>(25:00) Meta’s AI pricing bet and the value of business data</li><li>(31:00) Why bond markets suddenly matter to tech</li><li>(37:00) AI financing moves from equity into debt</li><li>(41:00) Oracle’s leveraged bet on OpenAI</li><li>(43:00) What happens when AI models reason in their own language?</li><li>(47:00) Deals of the week</li><li>(50:00) What to watch next week</li></ul>