As the legendary story of OpenAI unfolds across the ocean, the European technology community has been waiting for the latest news, as if a new round of "successors" are about to take place. In fact, these events sometimes resemble a Greek tragedy in which the gods battled on top of Olympus while we mere mortals looked on. With only a handful of big AI startups, such as Germany's AlephAlpha and France's Mistral (London's DeepMind has long been folded into Google), able to offer anything dramatic, these folks have been grabbing their popcorn to watch the latest season of the unexpected live-action version of Silicon Valley.

Few venture capitalists in Europe are willing to speak out publicly, perhaps for fear of attracting the attention of some Silicon Valley AI gods who are in full combat mode.

One British investor believes the drama will have a positive impact on Europe's emerging artificial intelligence industry.

"This is undoubtedly good news for startups like Mistral, who may be able to poach some good employees and catch up with OpenAI. For artificial intelligence companies built on OpenAI, this will not bring big changes in the short term, but it means the homogenization of the market, especially if they lose direction and focus."

Another expert pointed out that after OpenAI's acclaimed "DemoDay", it was once regarded as "the most extraordinary business", but now it looks "absolutely a bloody show". They likened it to the failure of WeWork, "but at least there were no formal venture capital firms involved because it was a hybrid of non-profit and for-profit and no one understood how it worked."

One European venture capitalist predicts that these events will have an impact on all terms negotiations: "I expect founders to be more resistant to board control over CEO changes and other similar terms. They will clearly ask, 'If this can happen to Sam Altman, why should I assume it can't happen to me?'"

On a more practical level, many European applied AI startups rely heavily on OpenAI because OpenAI (no matter what anyone says) is superior to most alternatives. They note: "The turmoil at OpenAI appears to be pushing business more towards Microsoft, which could have considerable impacts on companies that rely on the OpenAI platform...especially if the company competes with or is outside the Microsoft ecosystem."

Another investor said: "From a platform perspective, this is a disaster. So many companies are already working with OpenAI, it will be like Facebook, Twitter, etc., the API is changing again, and it may be worse. The API changes, and it may be worse."

Others expressed dissatisfaction with European regulation: "As we have seen, tough regulation from the EU level will not save us. We need more local AI advocates. There is still time, but it is not clear how much is left."

Others are more optimistic that the turmoil has bought European startups useful time: "This is a good thing for European AI startups because it gives them time to breathe and recalibrate before the next shock wave comes."

Finally, Steve Schlenker, co-founder and managing partner of DN Capital, bravely spoke out.

One of his concerns is that the world's most successful LL.M.s will move away from run-of-the-mill startups - "like those in Europe" - to startups and researchers, mostly local in the United States, who will go through some new yet-to-be-determined "screening" process, such as the one determined by OpenAI's controversial board of directors.

Furthermore, if OpenAI's best and brightest become full-time employees of a major American company like Microsoft, "the AI ​​movement's ability to be open to everyone at a fair price will rapidly decline."

Meanwhile, the good thing about all this chaos is that it's being played out publicly on social media, primarily on Twitter/X. As one venture capitalist in Warsaw told me"It's very exciting and unique to stage this bloody drama publicly on Twitter. This is impossible in Europe!"