In this edition: A look at France's fading insect protein hopes, and whether Innovafeed can resuscitate them. Plus: One last push to avoid government cuts to French tech programs; startups go to school.
With Ÿnsect rolling toward bankruptcy and Agronutris seeking court protection, France's ambitions for the insect-based food market may have been squashed. But Innovafeed is still in the game thanks to a very different strategy.
Inside: The AI Summit for Action is over. But we have one final recap. Plus: Mistral AI says it's open for business. Will it be enough to claim a place on the global stage?
CEO Arthur Mensch: "Our goal is to be a global market leader." France's Great LLM Hope announced a flood of business deals in the face of mounting skepticism that it can compete against rivals such as OpenAI and DeepSeek.
Startups that raised from Feb. 10 to Feb. 14 also include: Ekstere, Speeral, ExtraJool, ENERSENS, ToumAI, Agri Lab Leverage, CountAct, AuraLIP, Freeda, Plantibodies, Wallace Technologies, EyePick, VCAST, Alterdiag, Oncodiag,and INOE.
In this edition: France's innovation bank Bpifrance reduced investments last year, and could be looking at further reductions in 2025. AI and deeptech remain the exceptions. Also this week: Altaroad CEO Cécile Villette talks about climate resilience.
The two-day summit saw lots of biz announcements, but no consensus on an AI statement. The mood was decidedly more buoyant at the Business Day gathering at Station F.
Can a €109bn investment package turbo-charge France's AI ambitions? Can AI diplomats learn to sing from the same gospel hymn?
Macron: "This summit is not just the announcement of investments in France. It's a wake-up call for our European strategy."
"We need to stop thinking about the decisions made about AI as something that technology company leaders do. We have to take back the control of those decisions."
"Sustainability and performance are not in conflict. You need to do both."
"We must manage artificial intelligence; we must not let it manage us."
"We cannot take this progress forward when we are not including diverse voices. Democracies around the world have different shapes and forms."
"If we kill creativity and creators, we kill the human soul. Culture is what tells us where we come from, what unites us."
"It's not the AI that is going to take our jobs, it's the lack of preparedness for us to take up new jobs in an AI context that is more at risk."
Inside: France is securing massive AI investments, with President Macron announcing €109B in funding. Bpifrance will invest €10B in AI startups. And Mistral AI punched back with its new Le Chat model.
