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This week we wrap up coverage of the AI Summit for Action. This includes:
🌞 Deep Dive: Mistral AI managed to turn the summit into a mega-marketing extravaganza as it sought to re-establish its credibility in the global LLM arms race. Across a series of more commercial and government announcements than anyone could count, the company aimed to prove that it has its business game face on. Read it here.
Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand
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⛰️ AI Action Summit News
⛰️ And so, it ends. The AI Summit For Action in Paris is done. You can read our Special Coverage of the comings and goings here:
Chris O’Brien
Chris O’Brien
Chris O’Brien
Chris O’Brien
But there was still Plenty O' More goodies dropping as the week rolled on. The government led the way with a host of AI initiatives:
⛰️ AI Education in Schools: Starting in the 2025 academic year, France will introduce mandatory AI training for 8th and 10th-grade students. This program aims to equip students with a foundational knowledge of artificial intelligence, including understanding its functions, limitations, biases, and environmental impacts. The initiative reflects the government's commitment to integrating AI literacy into the national curriculum. | L'etudiant
⛰️ National Institute for AI Evaluation and Security (INESIA): The French government has announced the creation of INESIA, a national institute dedicated to the scientific assessment and security of artificial intelligence technologies. This institute will evaluate AI's effects, particularly concerning national security, ensuring that AI developments align with safety and ethical standards. | Campus France
⛰️ Generative AI for Public Sector Employees: Plans are underway to provide generative AI tools to 5.7 million public sector employees in France. This initiative aims to enhance public services by integrating AI technologies into administrative processes, thereby improving efficiency and responsiveness to public needs. | Banque des Territoires
⛰️ EU AI Champions Initiative: Launched at the AI Action Summit in Paris, this initiative brings together over 60 European companies committed to establishing Europe as a global leader in AI development and application. The coalition focuses on mobilizing talent and capital, accelerating AI adoption in established industries, and enhancing the competitiveness of European companies in the AI sector. | Website
⛰️ Coalition for Sustainable AI: Initiated by France in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme and the International Telecommunications Union, this coalition aims to align AI development with global sustainability goals. It seeks to ensure that AI technologies contribute positively to environmental objectives, promoting responsible AI that supports ecological transitions. | Website
⛰️ Current AI is a global partnership launched in February 2025 at the AI Action Summit in Paris, aiming to develop artificial intelligence technologies that serve the public interest. With an initial investment of $400 million from the French government, AI Collaborative, and industry partners like Google and Salesforce, the initiative seeks to raise $2.5 billion over five years. Its focus areas include expanding access to high-quality datasets, promoting open-source tools, and establishing frameworks for AI transparency and accountability, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, education, and linguistic diversity. | Website
⛰️ Macron Promotes France's Electric-Powered AI Initiatives. President Emmanuel Macron emphasized France's commitment to becoming a leader in artificial intelligence by leveraging the country's clean and abundant nuclear energy. He highlighted that this sustainable power source positions France uniquely to address the substantial energy demands of AI technologies. Macron urged businesses to consider Europe for their AI needs, contrasting France's approach to energy with that of other nations. | Reuters, World Nuclear News
⛰️ However, some critics warn that France's ambition to become a leading hub for artificial intelligence by leveraging its abundant nuclear power faces potential delays due to the lengthy processes required to connect energy-intensive data centers to the electricity grid. In response, state-owned utility EDF has identified sites with existing grid connections to expedite development and reduce project timelines. | Reuters
Headlines
🗞️ Ex-Mistral Employee Seeks $80M for Stealth AI Startup | Theophile Gervet, a former research scientist at Mistral AI, has launched Genesis Robotics, aiming to raise $80 million for an AI-powered simulation platform designed to train next-generation robots. Co-founded with Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute's Zhou Xian, the startup claims its "Genesis" platform can deliver simulations up to 80 times faster than existing tools like Nvidia's IsaacGym. This initiative has garnered attention within the AI community, with industry professionals describing the technology as "absolutely insane." | Sifted
⛰️ Evroc to Build Hyperscale AI Data Centre in France | Swedish startup Evroc has announced plans to construct a 96-megawatt hyperscale data center in Mougins, France, near the tech hub Sophia Antipolis. This facility, set to be operational later this year, will house approximately 50,000 GPUs and represents Evroc's ambition to offer a European alternative to American cloud services like AWS. The project aligns with the EU's objective to enhance tech sovereignty and reduce reliance on non-European cloud providers. | Sifted
⛰️ Fluidstack to Build 1GW AI Supercomputer in France | Fluidstack, an AI cloud platform provider, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French government to develop one of the world's largest decarbonized AI supercomputers. The initial €10 billion investment will establish a data center powered by France's nuclear energy, providing up to 1 gigawatt of dedicated AI compute power. Set to become operational in 2026, this project aims to position France as a premier global AI hub, offering unparalleled compute capacity for next-generation AI models. | PR
🗣️ From Code to Commerce: Mistral AI Shows It Means Business at Paris Summit
During last week's AI Action Summit in Paris, France's Mistral AI unveiled a series of major business initiatives and partnerships, signaling an aggressive push to transform itself from a research-focused startup into a full-fledged commercial AI provider.
The announcements come as rivals such as OpenAI's ChatGPT reportedly have $3.7 billion in annual revenue while China's DeepSeek has upended notions about GenAI business models with its lower-cost, open-sourced competitor. In recent weeks, that has triggered a debate about Mistral, France's hope for an LLM competitor that has raised about €600m in financing:
Does DeepSeek's arrival create new hope for open-source competitors like Mistral? Or will Mistral get squeezed between American and Chinese rivals?
Over the course of a week, Mistral responded with a flurry of business-related announcements that came on the heels of the buzz surrounding its latest model. Mistral is positioning itself as a more efficient, decentralized alternative to American AI providers even as the company highlighted similarities with Chinese company DeepSeek, which has demonstrated the ability to build competitive models at lower cost.
This could prove attractive to European clients seeking independence from U.S. technology giants. With the eyes of the AI world fixed for several days on Paris, Mistral seemed intent on demonstrating that it has the tech and business strategy to establish itself as Europe's champion in the global AI race.
"Our goal is to be a global market leader,“ said Mistral co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch in an interview on French TV channel TF1. "Mistral has already demonstrated this from a technological perspective. Now we're trying to do it from the product side.“
AI Funding News
📇 Company: ScorePlay
🔍 Description: An AI-powered platform revolutionizing sports media management by automating the tagging, organization, and distribution of content for sports organizations.
💻 Website: https://www.scoreplay.io/
📍 HQ City: New York and Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €12.5M
🏦 Investors: 20VC; Seven Seven Six; APEX Capital; BYL Ventures; Trybe Ventures; FIBA; LORi6 Ventures
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Victorien Tixier; Xavier Green
🗞️ News: EU Startups
📇 Company: Freeda
🔍 Description: Automated plan compliance verification and collaboration platform for construction projects.
💻 Website: http://freeda.so
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €0.2M
🏦 Investors: Business Angels from Mistral AI, Station F, and Databricks
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Augustin Perraud
📇 Company: EyePick
🔍 Description: Develops robotic and machine-learning technologies to enable automation in industries and increase productivity.
💻 Website: https://eyepick.co/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: N/A
🏦 Investors: Entrepreneur First
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Mehdi Adjaoue; Florian Fontaine-Papion
Events
📆 RAISE Summit 2025 | July 8-9, 2025 | RAISE Summit is the premier event for professionals seeking to disrupt, build, and connect in the AI landscape. This summit is the ultimate destination to validate AI strategies through real-world use cases, define a winning AI playbook, and find the right partners to deliver cutting-edge solutions. | Register
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