Case study ·
A German search engine dropped Mistral to bet on Chinese open-source models
Original title, in Spanish: “Un motor de búsqueda alemán ha rechazado a Mistral apostando por modelos IA chinos open-source en su lugar”
- Publication
- Xataka (Spain)
- Author
- Alejandro Alcolea
- Published on
- 13 October 2026 · read in the page structured data
Summary
German search engine Ecosia is dropping Mistral as its AI provider, having adopted it only a few months earlier, and switching to open-source Chinese models (Qwen, GLM, Kimi), according to an interview with its founder Christian Kroll published by Politico. Kroll attributes the decision to Mistral's insufficient quality ("a year behind"), technical problems related to the size of Ecosia's user base, a disagreement over French nuclear power, and Mistral's lack of independence from investors such as Nvidia. In a later interview, he qualifies this by describing a choice of open models rather than a national preference, and also mentions Melious, a German provider of access to open-source models hosted on European infrastructure and powered by green energy. The article highlights the contradiction between rejecting French nuclear power and using Chinese data centres that run mostly on coal, as well as doubts about censorship in Chinese models.
Summary based on the full text of the article.
Read the article on Xataka →Figures cited
-
68.1 %
Share of nuclear power in French electricity in 2025
France, 2025
« Según RTE, que es el gestor de la red eléctrica francesa, la nuclear aportó el 68,1% de la electricidad francesa en 2025 con una producción baja en carbono que alcanzó el 95,2%. »
Source: RTE
-
95.2 %
Share of low-carbon electricity generation in France in 2025
France, 2025
« Según RTE, que es el gestor de la red eléctrica francesa, la nuclear aportó el 68,1% de la electricidad francesa en 2025 con una producción baja en carbono que alcanzó el 95,2%. »
Source: RTE
-
20 g CO2/kWh
CO2 emissions of French electricity
France
« Según las estimaciones, la electricidad francesa emite menos de 20 gramos de CO2 por kWh. »
-
300 g CO2/kWh
CO2 emissions of German electricity
Germany
« Alemania, posicionada en contra de las nucleares y lastrada por el carbón, se sitúa en el rango de los 300 gramos de CO2 por kWh. »
-
70 %
Share of coal in the power supply of Chinese data centres in 2025
China, 2025
« según la IAE, el 70% de la electricidad que alimentó sus centros de datos en 2025 venía del carbón. »
Source: IAE (AIE)
-
80 %
Target for renewable energy coverage of Chinese data centres in 2030
China, 2030 target
« La idea es que las renovables cubran el 80% del consumo de esos centros de datos para 2030 »
Classification
- Country
- Germany, France, China
- Company size
- All sizes
- Industries
- Software vendors, IT services companies, telecoms
- Companies
- GLM (supplier), Kimi (supplier), Melious (supplier), Ecosia (deploys AI), Mistral (supplier), OpenAI (cited), Qwen (supplier), Nvidia (cited)
- Keywords
- search engine, mistral ai, open-source models, digital sovereignty, AI provider, Chinese models
Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Xataka and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.