Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch defends AI in warfare, directly challenges Pope Leo's call to disarm

Mistral CEO Challenges Pope Leo Criticism on Military Use of AI

Arthur Mensch, CEO and co-founder of French AI startup Mistral, delivered a direct rebuttal to Pope Leo XIV's recent call to "disarm AI," arguing that Europe cannot afford to step back from defense-AI work while adversaries actively deploy the technology 1

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. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, just three days after the Vatican published its landmark encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Mensch defended the military use of AI as a geopolitical necessity 3

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"We're all for peace, but if you look at our rivals and adversaries in the world, they're using artificial intelligence ... As long as we have adversaries that are threatening, and they are threatening, we do need to have our own capabilities," Mensch told reporters 1

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. The remarks mark one of the most direct corporate responses to what has become the Catholic Church's most consequential intervention on AI 3

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Pope Leo XIV's Encyclical Calls for Disarming AI

Pope Leo XIV issued a 42,300-word document on Monday urging international regulation and warning that AI could spread false information and fuel constant conflict 1

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. The encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas, calls for three binding requirements around autonomous-weapons deployment: traceability of decisions, meaningful human control over lethal action, and international rules to slow the technological arms race 3

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. The Pope explicitly rejected traditional "just war" theory as "outdated" and argued that military force can be justified only in "self-defence in the strictest sense" 3

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European AI Capabilities and Tech Sovereignty Drive Mistral's Position

Mistral, valued at €11.7 billion last year, positions itself as a European alternative to U.S. AI giants as part of a wider push in Europe to reduce dependency on U.S. technology companies 1

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. The company supplies AI models to the French military and has been visibly building a defense-AI portfolio since early 2025 3

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. Through its partnership with Helsing announced at the Paris AI Action Summit in February 2025, Mistral has produced joint work on vision-language-action models designed for "a new generation of defence systems" 3

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. Helsing has already deployed AI systems in Eurofighter combat jets, battlefield simulations, and Ukraine drone operations 3

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Mistral Announces €4 Billion Data Center Expansion

Alongside defending AI for defense applications, Mistral announced it would build a data center in Les Ulis, France, with 10 megawatts of computing power, due to open in the second half of 2026 1

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. The move, part of a broader €4 billion investment strategy, will complement existing facilities in Sweden and France and help the company reach a planned 200 megawatts of computing power by the end of 2027 and 1 gigawatt by 2030 1

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. Mistral also announced new customers, including Airbus across commercial, defence and space activities 4

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Europe's War on American Tech Intensifies

Mensch's argument reflects a broader European push for tech sovereignty in an increasingly tense geopolitical environment 2

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. French President Emmanuel Macron said at the Munich Security Conference in February, "In this new geopolitical environment, Europe has to become a geopolitical power" 2

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. The French government announced earlier this year it would stop using American video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, instead using the French platform Visio 2

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. The European Commission is reportedly working on legislation aimed at promoting tech sovereignty across the bloc, expected to be unveiled on June 3 2

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Guillaume Lample, Mistral's co-founder and chief scientist, emphasized the urgency: "Very soon in the future, we are probably going to see AGI or superintelligence, so it is very important that we have access to these models also in Europe. If we don't have access to it, I think we can only imagine how bad it is going to be" 2

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Public Anguish and Deterrence Arguments Collide

Mistral's announcement follows growing scepticism towards tech firms, particularly among younger generations, with videos surfacing of students booing executives during U.S. graduation ceremonies 1

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. When asked about this public anguish, Mensch acknowledged, "I think there is some expected anguish around artificial intelligence. It's not the first time that people are a bit anguished at something coming up. But we'll be fine. We'll find a way to use it efficiently" 1

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Mensch's public push-back against Pope Leo criticism is not a hypothetical posture, but a defense of an existing business line now under formal moral censure from the Vatican 3

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. The next year of EU AI Act enforcement, member-state defence spending, and Vatican-aligned policy advocacy will indicate which side wins out in this fundamental debate over deterrence versus disarming AI 3

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