European Rebellion: Mistral Defends Military AI and Rejects Vatican Criticism

Ethical debates surrounding AI have entered a stage of open political conflict. On May 28, 2026, the French company Mistral AI publicly rejected the recent criticism from Pope Leo XIV (the «Magnifica Humanitas» encyclical). Company CEO Arthur Mensch did not smooth over the edges and openly defended the use of AI for military purposes.

This demarche is a turning point for the European tech sector. While America’s Anthropic courts the Vatican, Mistral chooses harsh pragmatism. Mensch understands: surviving the hyperscaler race without multi-billion-dollar defense contracts is impossible. Morality is giving way to sovereignty. Synchronously with this statement, the company announced the construction of its own 10 MW data center in Les Ulis, France. Mistral is building a fully independent, secure European AI infrastructure perimeter, ready to serve the needs of the military-industrial complex and state structures without regard to moralizing.

Source: Mistral AI / Reuters / RTÉ