Sounds like they don’t have a moat at all. It’s like software consultancy with a data centre. And then the article mentions many customers using these models on prem (so data centre is not really a plus).
What’s stopping any country backed startup from fine-tuning small open source models?
No one in Europe will buy from a random startup, the consultancy part is a MUST to do businesses with big corps, banks, finances, insurances, governs, public administration ...
Maybe because distilling small models from bigger ones that you control gives you better small models than fine-tuning from bigger models you don't control?
(I am not claiming it is the case, but stating this as an assumption)