France has figured out compute and energy
The canonical caricature I have of France in my mind that it is a country that shuts down in August, shuts down in December, and frankly shuts down seemingly every time of the year.
But it seems like they have two prongs of the next few decades — compute and energy — figured out:
- Mistral: Probably the best open-source model as of today, headquartered in Paris.
- Nuclear: Compared to every other European country struggling to figure out how to power the needs of its citizens and industry, “France derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy.” Problem solved.
Getting the basics right is difficult. France seems to have done it.