Mistral and a coalition of European AI companies are challenging calls from Anthropic and other US AI leaders to slow frontier AI (the most advanced AI systems) development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued in a September 12 essay for voluntary coordination among AI labs to prioritize safety and manage risks from increasingly powerful models. European competitors say such proposals could entrench companies already operating at the frontier, a concern echoed by leading voices in Germany and France and by companies including Proton and Black Forest Labs. The dispute also covers Anthropic's proposed antitrust waiver for joint safety work, which European firms oppose as a mechanism that could let established players shape industry rules. The EU AI Act (the bloc's AI law) is already in effect, with obligations tiered by system risk. Founded in 2023, Mistral raised €3 billion in Series D funding and reached a valuation of approximately €21 billion while pursuing French government contracts. Its strategy emphasizes open-weight models, which allow governments and enterprises to run, inspect and modify AI systems on their own infrastructure.