At the mid-year Cerebral Valley AI Summit in London, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said that effectively we’ve already reached AGI and cautioned against the Western world relying too heavily on American foundation models. Sequoia Capital partner Luciana Lixandru noted European leaders’ realization that they can no longer rely on the United States, and Sequoia just co-led a €500 million round in Stark Defense. Arnaud Fournier, a Palantir vet, described how his team at OpenAI embeds in legacy businesses to teach leaders what AI can do, including work with Thrive Holdings to integrate AI into accounting firm rollups. Luminance CEO Eleanor Lightbody and Gradium founder Neil Zeghidour agreed that earning customers’ trust in AI accuracy is key to top-quality deals. Higgsfield founder Alex Mashrabov and Gamma founder Grant Lee both saw enterprise demand for AI creative tools and are pushing into enterprise solutions. Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer pushed back on the notion that backing multiple AI labs is contradictory, saying “We’re in the early innings,” and advised founders to evaluate hires on capability, taste, and agency.