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Key Takeaways

American AI companies raised $355.9 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, more than eight times the roughly $42 billion Europe raised for AI in the same six months, a gap that keeps pulling ambitious founders west.

France carries one of the heaviest tax burden of any major economy, and its exit tax specifically targets founders who leave, taxing paper gains on a company they haven’t even sold yet.

Mistral just raised the largest equity round in European tech history, but that same announcement revealed it has quietly stepped back from competing head on for the best model, and is opening its platform to Chinese models instead.

Europe trains excellent AI researchers, and then watches a disproportionate share of them build their companies in the United States.…