I wait to meet Xavier Niel in a room that feels fitting for one of France's richest men. Gold-encrusted walls frame a boardroom table the size of a small swimming pool. And beyond the large windows, a lily pond. Niel is the original French internet mogul, of the generation before founders wore T-shirts to the office. His team wears suits; he arrives in a classic white shirt. Niel might ooze establishment now but his fortune is rooted in Minitel Rose, the 'erotic chat' service he launched as a teenager. Later, he graduated to telecoms, and the company he founded in the '90s, Iliad, is now one of Europe's major mobile operators. He's also co-owner of French newspaper Le Monde. Niel, a former hacker who never went to college, has always been preoccupied with disruption. Over the past year, he'and his money'have become an engine powering the rising French AI industry. Niel is not building models himself. Instead he considers his role to be more paternalistic. 'I'm the old guy who likes...
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