A huge valuation for Mistral AI might suggest investor confidence in AI, but it doesn't give us a fail-safe against regulatory pitfalls for every company.
There's always a drawdown risk if the AI Act creates conditions that are simply too expensive for smaller players, regardless of how well one large company does.
For example, if a Belgian startup needs to hire a full-time legal expert just to navigate the Act's data requirements, that's a cost many can't absorb, no matter how much Mistral raised.
The condition for viability isn't just one big success, it's about whether the average business can actually comply without significant capital expenditure they don't have.