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Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
Edito
In theory, the AI Action Summit in Paris is all about high-brow conversations about policy and equity and guardrails and blah, blah, blah...
In reality, it has quickly turned into a giant gusher of cash that is raining down across the land.
President Emmanuel Macron announced in a TV interview on Sunday night that €109 billion in artificial intelligence will be invested in France over the coming years. To be clear, that's not from the government, but primarily private investors that apparently are lining up to write checks in France, including investment funds from the United Arab Emirates, 'Merica, and Canada. Macron compared this effort to the $500 billion announced by Donald Trump for AI in the United States, stating: "This is the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate."
Possibly. These investments kicked off late last week when the UAE signed a pledge last week to invest between €30bn to €50bn in France's AI economy. That included a promise to build “the largest artificial intelligence campus in Europe" which would include a "data center with a capacity of up to 1 GW." No word on where the campus will be, but it will host research and training programs. And there is an additional promise to back French AI startups.
The Data Center Arms Race is becoming one of the fiercest competitions in the world. And France wants to make sure that no gigawatt is left behind. French AI minister Clara Chappaz announced that 35 “ready-to-use” sites are already identified to host future data centers in France. This infrastructure will cover around 1,200 hectares, with an announcement of its location scheduled for the beginning of next week.
Some of those may be allocated to Canada's Brookfield investment fund, which announced plans to invest €20 billion in French AI infrastructure, primarily especially data centers and computing power. Sikander Rashid, Director of Europe for Brookfield, told Le Figaro: “France has excellent engineering skills for this type of installation. It is now the most vocal country in Europe to host this infrastructure, and it benefits from clean energy, thanks in particular to nuclear power.” He would know: Brookfield is a major shareholder in European data center leader, Data4, headquartered in France and which operates 28 data centers in the south of Paris.
Also joining the windfall: the Iliad Group, the telecom company owned by French startup godfather Xavier Niel. The company declared that it would allocate €3 billion to AI infrastructure, (data centers and computing power), research, and application layers. That includes OpCore, the subsidiary that operates the Group's 13 data centers, which will spend €2.5 billion on hyperscale data centers via a partnership with PE firm Infravia.
Meanwhile, homegrown Mistral AI unveiled plans to build its first dedicated AI data center in France. CEO Arthur Mensch revealed in an interview on TF1 that the multi-billion-euro facility will be located in Essonne and is set to open in the coming months. The company chose France for its energy efficiency and low-carbon energy mix, largely powered by nuclear energy (67.41%) and renewables (27.6%). Mensch emphasized that this infrastructure will help Mistral AI control the entire value chain, from hardware to software. (More on Mistral below).
Of course, French state bank Bpifrance wouldn't miss out on the fun. The bank said it will invest €10 billion by 2029 "to strengthen France’s AI ecosystem and accelerate AI adoption among businesses." That includes startups, infrastructure, and specialized AI chips, while also investing in growth-stage companies that integrate AI at scale. The initiative includes direct investments, fund-of-funds strategies, and AI-focused programs such as AI Booster France 2030, which helps SMEs leverage AI for productivity and innovation. The bank noted that it has already invested over €1 billion in AI startups.
Expect France to keep shaking its AI money maker in the days ahead...
Chris O'Brien
⛰️ AI Action Summit News
⛰️ And so, it begins. In the center of Paris, 60 heads of state and government, including US Vice President JD Vance, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will join with scientists, experts, and academic researchers to discuss the implications of the AI revolution.
"This summit is a historic opportunity to position France and Europe as a central player in responsible AI (artificial intelligence)," said French AI Minister Clara Chappaz in an interview. "The challenge is to show that technological performance and respect for human values are not antagonistic. Paris must embody this third path, between purely market-based vision and overly coercive approaches. In particular, a joint statement by the Heads of State on the vision to be given to this technology will be presented."
Anne Bouverot, appointed by Macron as his special envoy on artificial intelligence, has leading the preparations for France's AI Action Summit. Unlike previous summits that concentrated on catastrophic AI risks, Bouverot broadened the agenda to include topics such as labor market disruptions and environmental impacts, while also emphasizing AI's potential benefits. Bouverot, who holds a PhD in AI from the École Normale Supérieure, has an extensive background in technology and diplomacy, having served as Director General of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association and CEO of Morpho, a French biometrics firm.
Her task has been fraught. As always, France is trying to thread the needle between bullish calls for innovation and the urgent need for guardrails around disruptive technology.
"AI can't be the Wild West," Macron said in an interview. "There have to be rules...There are all kinds of fields where we don't want AI because we don't want it creating discrimination or mass control in our society." He added: "We shouldn't be afraid of innovation."
Observers will be watching closely for two developments: A final communique and the announcement of a public interest foundation for AI.
On the first, there are reports of ongoing tension, with US Reps supposedly wanting to avoid any mention of AI's impact on the environment, and others worried that draft language is not strong enough on safety issues based on a leaked version of the statement. Anne Bouverot, Macron’s special envoy to the summit, has hinted that a unanimous statement may not be possible: “Part of it is also what we can do on the global level with a coalition of the willing, or with coalitions of the willing, because we don’t always agree, all, on everything, and that’s absolutely fine.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Macron is expected to unveil the details of a public benefit AI institution, funded via governments, businesses, and philanthropy. The goal is to have a kind of neutral body that will gather large datasets for public institutions that can be used to train AI.
⛰️ The 15 days that upended Macron’s vision for European AI | Politico offers a rather doom-ridden view of how France's AI ambitions were rocked by the $500bn Stargate announcement and China's DeepSeek launch. “As often with big upheavals, we missed the turning point. That’s what happened with robotization and social networks,” said an aide to the French president. | Politico
⛰️ OpenAI announces European data residency. The ChatGPT mothership unveiled an option that would allow users to choose to have their info stored in European-based servers to "meet local data sovereignty requirements when using OpenAI products in their businesses and building new solutions with AI." | OpenAI
⛰️ The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) will launch the Scientific Panel on AI and Economic Inclusion on Tuesday. The initiative comes on the heels of the IPIE’s publication of its recommendations for a global AI auditing framework. “Trust in AI isn’t a given—it is engineered through global, independent audits that expose and prevent systemic harms and risks. Just as we regulate industries like oil or tobacco to prevent catastrophic harm, AI needs global audit standards to ensure it operates transparently and fairly,” said Professor Philip Howard, President of the IPIE, in a statement.
IPIE leaders have urged world leaders to establish global AI transparency standards. The IPIE emphasized that trust in AI must be engineered through independent global audits, likening AI governance to regulations in industries such as oil and tobacco. The newly launched Scientific Panel on AI and Economic Inclusion will address how AI can either empower or exclude marginalized communities, particularly in access to credit, housing, and employment.
Dr. Jen Schradie, a sociologist at Sciences Po, will lead the new panel. She highlighted concerns about AI bias reinforcing economic inequality, stressing that AI should be a force for economic empowerment, not exclusion. “AI governance is not about controlling these systems, it's about democratizing AI’s development across the many nations currently left out of the conversation. Without coordinated global governance, we risk allowing AI use to accelerate without guardrails and further entrench inequality, exploitation, and harm. Shared frameworks are a pivotal step toward ensuring AI serves all of humanity, not just those who build or profit from it," she said in a statement. The IPIE also announced a virtual briefing on February 27, 2025, focusing on AI auditing standards, reinforcing the need for global governance and oversight to ensure AI serves the public interest. | Announcement
⛰️ AI Action Summit Reports
There is a flood of reports being released by different interest groups. Here are two key ones:
⛰️ The French AI Report 2024: Key Challenges, Financing Trends, and Emerging Champions | This report by Chausson Partners, seed-stage VC firm Galion.exe, and European growth tech investor Revaia provides a comprehensive analysis of the French and European AI ecosystems, highlighting key funding trends, emerging startups, and strategic challenges. AI startups in France secured significant venture capital investment, with Mistral AI’s $640 million Series B serving as a prime example of the sector’s growth. The study identifies major challenges, such as data accessibility, AI talent shortages, and go-to-market strategies, emphasizing the need for France to consolidate its AI leadership. France’s AI infrastructure and SaaS solutions are particularly strong in sectors like health and climate, reinforcing its global positioning. The report calls for greater strategic investments and international partnerships to ensure long-term competitiveness. | Read the report
⛰️ L'IA au sein des grandes organisations | This report by La French Tech Grand Paris and Wavestone examines the role of AI within large organizations, emphasizing its transformative impact on operational efficiency, decision-making, and automation. It explores the increasing adoption of AI-driven technologies across sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, with a focus on improving productivity and customer engagement. The report identifies major challenges, including AI talent acquisition, ethical concerns, and the need for robust data infrastructure to support AI applications. It also highlights case studies of enterprises successfully implementing AI solutions, showcasing best practices for AI adoption. The report concludes by stressing the importance of integrating AI within corporate strategies while maintaining transparency and regulatory compliance. | Get a copy
Headlines
🗞️ Mistral AI strikes back: Just a couple of weeks ago, the French AI startup seemed squeezed between the mega $500bn Stargate announcement and the Chinese DeepSeek news. What hope could there possibly be for the French AI open-source startup that could?
Ah, but then Mistral launched LeChat, with Pro and Team tiers of service and mobile versions for iOS and Android. And just like that – Bam! – Mistral was getting rave reviews for "The FASTEST AI model on the market." Even the Big Man hailed the news:
The was just part of Mistral's own mini-newstorm. That included a deal with mobile carry Free to offer the pro version of Le Chat for free to its mobile subscribers. Meanwhile, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems said it had helped Mistral achieve a speed record via its partnership.
Co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch has become increasingly outspoken, suggesting he's growing more comfortable being the face of France's AI ambitions. He hopes Le Chat will bring the benefits of AI to a broader public. And he struck a defiant tone when discussing Europe's AI potential.
"There are, of course, American narratives that explain that we have nothing more to say," he said in an interview with Le Parisien. "But Europe has the best AI talent in the world, and with a good product, you raise considerable capital. There is foreign investment in Europe, which is something to be welcomed! We don't believe that you have to have 100 billion right away to have the best models in the world, and we've proven it. It was by bringing back some 60 scientists from the United States and explaining to them that we had the best team in the world that we succeeded in creating Mistral AI. We are more efficient, more frugal, more creative, faster, and we play less politics."
🗞️ Kyutai, the AI institute co-founded by the aforementioned Niel, launched Hibiki, a voice technology for simultaneous translation. Hibiki ("echo" in Japanese) enables real-time translation while preserving the speaker's voice and optimally adapting its rhythm to the semantic content of the source speech. Hibiki thus produces an instantaneous oral and written translation in the target language. Currently trained to translate from French to English, the model can be used in real-time on smartphones. | Martechpost
🗞️ Hectar, the other campus of Xavier Niel, is preparing an AI assistant for farmers. This agricultural campus, co-founded by Xavier Niel, aims to develop AI agents to reduce the administrative burden on farmers. These tools, scheduled for September, aim to simplify farm management, transmission, and recruitment. | Les Echos
🗞️ Dassault Systèmes, the French software giant, had a rocky 2024, due to challenges in the automotive and medical sectors, but still managed to eke out 7% revenue growth in Q4, reaching €1.75 billion, with profits rising 9% to €530 million. CEO Pascal Daloz said the company is betting big on reigniting growth via industrial AI with its new UNIV+RSES platform, which integrates virtual twins and AI-driven automation, allowing engineers to focus on design while AI handles repetitive tasks like crash-test simulations and code generation. | Le Figaro
Other headlines
🗞️ Inside the French founders factory churning out AI startups like Mistral and Hugging Face: ‘There are swarms of them’ | Centuries-old engineering school École Polytechnique has been a breeding ground for AI talent. | Sifted
AI Funding News
📇 Company: Riot
🔍 Description: A cybersecurity software platform that helps businesses assess and improve employee cyber posture to protect against AI-driven threats.
💻 Website: https://tryriot.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €28.9M
🏦 Investors: Left Lane Capital; Y Combinator; Base10; FundersClub
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Benjamin Netter; Louis Cibot
🗞️ News: EU Startups
📇 Company: Stockly
🔍 Description: The Global Inventory for Retail, helping retailers access and optimize stock availability.
💻 Website: https://www.stockly.ai/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €26M
🏦 Investors: Eurazeo; 83North; Square Capital; Daphni; Anyma Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Eliott Jabès; Oscąr Wąlter
🗞️ News: Usine Digtale
📇 Company: Sirius NeoSight
🔍 Description: AI-powered medical imaging for diagnostic enhancement.
💻 Website: https://sirius-neosight.com
📍 HQ City: Lyon
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €4.40M
🏦 Investors: Demeter Partners; Octalfa; GO Capital; Angels Santé; Evolem; Better Angle; Crédit Agricole Création
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Arnaud Vigneron; Agnès Bastid
🗞️ News: Bref Eco
📇 Company: Neuralk AI
🔍 Description: Developing foundation AI models specialized for business needs.
💻 Website: https://www.neuralk-ai.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €3.80M
🏦 Investors: Fly Ventures; Station F; Philippe Corrot; Charles Gorintin; Vincent Luciani; Thomas Wolf; Nagi Letaifa; Jean-Louis Quéguiner; Saturnin Pugnet; Julien Launay; Xavier Perret
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Alexandre Pasquiou, Antoine Moissenot
🗞️ News: Maddyness
📇 Company: The QA Company
🔍 Description: AI-powered software enabling Question Answering systems over knowledge graphs.
💻 Website: https://qanswer.ai
📍 HQ City: Saint-Étienne
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €2.55M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance; UI Investissement; Saint-Étienne Métropole; HEF; Crédit Agricole Loire Haute-Loire
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre Maret
🗞️ News: LinkedIn
Events
📆 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit | February 10-11, 2025 | Heads of State and Government, leaders of international organizations, CEOs of small and large companies, representatives of academia, non-governmental organizations, artists, and members of civil society will gather in Paris to discuss the critical policy issues surrounding AI. | Information
📆 AI and women's health | February 10 | The association Femtech France is delighted to invite you to its evening "IA and women's health" on the sidelines of the Summit for Action on AI organized by the Élysée. | Buy tickets
📆 Launch of the Enlightenment AI report | February 11 | Driven by Francis Jutand’s expertise and published by CAP Digital, the report offers a bold vision: to build an ethical, sovereign, and sustainable AI, reaffirming the values of humanism and progress in the Enlightenment. An AI that can and must become a lever for human progress, democratic access to knowledge, and ecological respect. | Registration
📆 Entrepreneurs: AI a lever for growth | February 11 | As AI revolutionizes our economy, entrepreneurs must seize the opportunities offered by this technology. Organized by CCI Paris, this afternoon will be an opportunity to discover concrete measures to support your digital transition and understand the central role of AI in regional and national economic strategy. | Registration
📆 France Digitale's AI Day 2025 | February 11, 2025 | Paris will be the AI capital of the world (at least for a week) during the AI Action Summit. With our AI Day — the official business side event of the Summit — seize this moment to meet and learn about the best in AI innovation made in Europe. | Information
📆 Anthropic Paris Builder Summit | February 12 | Join the Anthropic team for our first Builder Summit in Paris, in partnership with our friends at Dust. Hear from Anthropic leadership, engage with fellow founders, and see the latest demos on Claude. | Request invitation
📆 World AI Cannes Festival | February 13 -15, 2025 | For 3 days, the prestigious Palais des Festival of Cannes will become the world capital of AI, where decision-makers and AI innovators meet, where the most promising innovations and technologies get into the spotlight, where those who are currently building the world’s most game-changing AI strategies and use-cases will be on stages. | Registration
📆 AI Agent DAY @NFT Paris | February 15 | You're invited to Crypto AI:CON Day during NFT Paris 2025, where around 300 selected founders and investors will gather for an evening of meaningful connections and conversations in the heart of Paris. | Registration
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