Black Forest Labs CEO Urges More AI Optimism in Europe

Black Forest Labs CEO Robin Rombach says Europe must focus more on opportunities from AI or risk falling further behind the United States and China, according to AFP. His comments come as safety concerns prompt some industry leaders to call for slower AI development.

Founded in 2024, the German startup develops FLUX models that create still and moving images from text. The company has more than 100 employees, a valuation of about $3.25 billion, and headquarters in Freiburg and San Francisco. It is also expanding into physical AI, with Audi testing one of its models for robots that perform production line tasks.

Rombach said downloadable open weight models can increase transparency and safety. He also identified access to capital and computing power as key requirements for European companies building frontier models.