Headlines

🗞️ Mistral AI Eyes $1B Fundraise to Challenge AI Giants and Unveils Mistral Code: Mistral AI is reportedly seeking to raise an additional $1 billion in funding. This initiative aims to enhance its infrastructure, including the development of a significant data center near Paris, and to expand its global footprint. The company's open and customizable AI models have attracted major clients like BNP Paribas, AXA, and Stellantis, signaling its growing influence beyond the U.S. market. Already valued near €6 billion and having secured over $1 billion since its 2022 founding, Mistral has recently inked several commercial contracts—some worth $100 million each over three to five years—that could drive revenues beyond the $100 million mark this year, according to The Financial Times. According to insiders, demand for “strategic autonomy” in AI, especially amid transatlantic political tensions and Trump’s return, has pushed European and global clients to seek alternatives to U.S. providers.

Meanwhile, last week Mistral AI launched Mistral Code, an AI-powered coding assistant designed to compete with tools like GitHub Copilot. Built on the open-source project Continue, Mistral Code integrates Mistral's in-house models—Codestral, Devstral, and Mistral Medium—to support over 80 programming languages. The tool offers features such as code autocompletion, multi-step refactoring, and an in-IDE assistant, with deployment options ranging from cloud to on-premises setups. Early adopters include Capgemini, Abanca, and SNCF. | Techcrunch, VentureBeat, Financial Times

🗞️ Hugging Face Unveils Compact AI Model For Robotics: Hugging Face has introduced SmolVLA, a compact 450-million-parameter vision-language-action (VLA) model designed for robotics applications. Remarkably, SmolVLA is efficient enough to run on consumer-grade hardware, including MacBooks and CPUs, eliminating the need for expensive GPUs. Trained exclusively on open-source, community-shared datasets from the LeRobot initiative, SmolVLA democratizes access to advanced robotics AI. Despite its smaller size, it outperforms larger models in both simulated and real-world tasks, thanks to its innovative asynchronous inference architecture, which separates perception from action execution for faster responses. This release is part of Hugging Face's broader strategy to make robotics more accessible. The company has also launched affordable hardware platforms and acquired Pollen Robotics, further solidifying its commitment to open-source robotics solutions. SmolVLA is now available for download, offering researchers and developers a powerful tool to advance robotics without the traditional barriers of cost and complexity. | Hugging Face, Techcrunch

🗞️ Kyutai Unveils An Open-Source Voice Interface for AI: Kyutai has introduced Unmute, a modular, open-source voice interface designed to add real-time speech capabilities to large language models (LLMs). Building on its previous project, Moshi, Unmute aims to transform AI interactions into fluid, latency-free voice exchanges, challenging proprietary solutions from tech giants like OpenAI and Google. Unmute's architecture comprises two key components: a real-time speech-to-text module with semantic end-of-speech detection, and a proactive text-to-speech synthesizer that begins speaking before the full-text response is generated. This design enables seamless, natural conversations without the typical pauses associated with AI responses. The system allows for customizable voices using brief audio samples and behavioral adjustments through simple text prompts, all without heavy training requirements. Importantly, Unmute operates independently of proprietary cloud infrastructures, making it suitable for deployment across various applications, from customer support to embedded systems. Kyutai's open-source approach positions Unmute as a strategic alternative for European developers and institutions seeking sovereign AI solutions. The technology is currently available for testing at unmute.sh, with full source code release anticipated in the coming weeks. | FrenchWeb

🗞️ U.S. Delivers 60-Foot Superconducting Magnet to Power ITER Fusion Reactor: The United States has delivered a colossal 60-foot-tall superconducting magnet, known as the central solenoid, to France's ITER fusion reactor project. This magnet, comprising six modules each weighing approximately 267,000 pounds, is pivotal for initiating and sustaining the plasma necessary for fusion reactions. The central solenoid's support structure was constructed through a collaborative effort involving eight American companies. This exoskeleton is designed to withstand extreme forces generated during fusion, ensuring the magnet's stability and performance. ITER, the world's largest experimental fusion reactor, represents a global collaboration among 35 countries aiming to replicate the sun's fusion process on Earth. The successful delivery and installation of the central solenoid mark a critical milestone in demonstrating the feasibility of fusion energy, with the project aiming to produce 500 MW of power by 2040. | Sustainability Times

🗞️ Maddyness Partners with Perplexity to Enhance AI-Powered Search Experience: Maddyness has entered into a strategic partnership with U.S.-based AI company Perplexity to integrate AI-powered search capabilities into its platform. This collaboration allows Maddyness readers to pose natural language questions directly within the site's search bar, receiving AI-generated answers based solely on Maddyness's journalistic content. The feature is powered by Perplexity's Sonar API and aims to provide precise, source-cited responses, enhancing user experience and engagement. Additionally, Maddyness's articles are now incorporated into Perplexity's AI search engine, enabling the AI to draw from Maddyness's content to provide relevant answers to users' queries. This integration not only increases the visibility of Maddyness's content but also introduces a new revenue stream through shared advertising income generated from AI-driven responses. | Maddyness, Les Echos

🗞️ India and France Forge Ethical AI Alliance at Bengaluru Summit: At the La French Tech India AI Summit 2025 in Bengaluru, leaders from both nations convened to champion ethical and inclusive artificial intelligence. Organized by La French Tech India alongside IFCCI, Business France, and the French Consulate in Bangalore, the event spotlighted collaborative efforts to align AI innovation with public interest and societal well-being. Keynote speaker Sharad Sharma of iSPIRT emphasized the importance of co-developing AI models that marry innovation with ethical responsibility. The summit also addressed ethical challenges in AI, with presentations on building public trust and the media's role in shaping technology narratives. This gathering sets the stage for the upcoming India-France Year of Innovation in 2026, reinforcing the strategic partnership between the two countries in the AI domain. | Times of India

🗞️ France's AI Ambitions Face ROI Reality Check: France is making big strides in Industry 4.0, with 94% of its industrial firms investing or planning to invest in AI and generative AI. Yet, a mere 2% report AI as delivering the best return on investment in 2024. That's the lowest among surveyed nations, according to the 10th annual report on the state of smart manufacturing published by Rockwell Automation. Despite leading Europe in AI applications for cybersecurity (56%) and product design (36%), French industries struggle to translate these investments into tangible gains. Only 9% see measurable ROI from cybersecurity initiatives, and just 24% have actively adopted countermeasures. | Actuia.com

ICYMI

🗞️ VSORA: The French AI Chipmaker Taking on NVIDIA with High-Performance, Cost-Efficient AI Hardware | Backed by €40 million in funding, CEO Khaled Maalej believes the company is set to disrupt the AI hardware market with its Jotunn8 chip, leveraging a fabless model and advanced chiplet architecture to slash the cost of deploying large language models and generative AI at scale. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Figma's CPO On Navigating The GenAI Revolution: 'It's A Very Dynamic Landscape.' | Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita discusses how the design company abandoned its traditional planning process to build AI-powered products as it adapts to the rapid evolution of GenAI capabilities. | The French Tech Journal

Alan Goes All-In on AI | Six months after announcing a Series F funding round of €173 million at a €4 billion valuation, the French insurtech is accelerating its embrace of AI to transform its operations and products. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ How Delos Is Building an AI Operating System for Business | CEO Pierre de la Grand'rive: "Our ambition is to offer generative AI that is truly useful to employees." | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ FlexAI: Pioneering Universal AI Compute Infrastructure | Modern AI workloads were being forced to run on computing architectures designed decades ago. FlexAI wants to create a faster, more flexible system that enables rapid scaling. | The French Tech Journal

🧠 H Company Launches Autonomous Agent Suite To Leapfrog Tech Giants

After a year of semi-secretive development, French artificial intelligence startup H Company has unveiled a suite of autonomous AI agents that it claims can outperform offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google while costing up to 5.5 times less to operate.

The company's official emergence from stealth mode is part of a broader shift in the AI landscape, where the focus is moving beyond chatbots to systems that can autonomously execute tasks in the real world.

The timing couldn't be more critical. As businesses struggle to find meaningful returns on their AI investments beyond basic conversational interfaces, H Company is betting that the future belongs to what CEO Charles Kantor calls "action models" – AI systems designed not just to talk, but to work.

"The vision has always been to build this next generation of intelligence, one that goes beyond conversations," Kantor explained in a recent interview. "Execution is the key to what we're seeking in terms of AI. How can you have an AI that interacts with files, that interacts with applications, that interacts with business, tools that interact with just knowledge generally, and that can perform some tasks and actions on your behalf?"

AI Funding News

📇 Company: Fabriq
🔍 Description: AI-powered platform improving daily operational efficiency for shop floor teams.
💻 Website: fabriq.tech
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €22M
🏦 Investors: OSS Ventures, Expedition Growth Capital, Contribution
👨💼👩💼 Founders: François Déchelette, Octave Lapeyronie
🗞️ News: Usine Digitale, EU Startups, FrenchWeb

📇 Company: Moments Lab
🔍 Description: AI and cloud-based media valorization platform for media and sports rights-holders
💻 Website: momentslab.com
📍 HQ City: Boulogne-Billancourt
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €21M
🏦 Investors: Elaia Partners, Orange Ventures, Supernova Invest, Oxx, Kadmos Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Philippe Petitpont, Frédéric Petitpont
🗞️ News: Silicon Canals

📇 Company: Aive
🔍 Description: Automates qualitative video creation and distribution at scale with AI.
💻 Website: https://www.aive.com/
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series A
💰 Amount Raised: €12M
🏦 Investors: Invus, BNP Paribas Développement, Altavia
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Olivier Reynaud, Rudy Lellouche
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: Califrais
🔍 Description: Logistics platform using machine learning to optimize purchasing and delivery of high-quality goods.
💻 Website: califrais.paris
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Early VC
💰 Amount Raised: €10M
🏦 Investors: Bpifrance
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Pierre Levy, Simon Bussy
🗞️ News: Maddyness

📇 Company: Thunder Code
🔍 Description: AI-powered test automation platform using intelligent personas and integrated tools
💻 Website: thundercode.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €8.18M
🏦 Investors: Silicon Badia, Janngo, Titan Capital
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani
🗞️ News: TechCrunch

📇 Company: Pletor
🔍 Description: AI design platform enabling marketers to build custom design agents
💻 Website: pletor.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €2M
🏦 Investors: Kima Ventures, Atlantic Labs, Kieran Flanagan, Antoine Le Nel
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Ferdinand Terme, Maxime Fonsale, Antoine Sueur
🗞️ News: La Revue Digitale, FrenchWeb, Tech.eu

📇 Company: Delpha
🔍 Description: AI assistant designed to enhance productivity and efficiency
💻 Website: delpha.io
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.82M
🏦 Investors: 50 Partners
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Paul Santini, Germain Bourgeois, and Bryce Jones
🗞️ News: Finsmes

📇 Company: Ordalie
🔍 Description: AI startup (likely health or legal-tech; full description not provided)
💻 Website: ordalie.ai
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Seed
💰 Amount Raised: €1.8M
🏦 Investors: Inovexus, SGPA, Seeder Fund, Claire Calmejane, Adrien Dassault, Marguerite Longuet
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Léa Fleury, Baudouin Arbarétier
🗞️ News: FrenchWeb, Les Echos

Announcements

SISTA AI | A program dedicated to accelerating the creation and growth of startups founded by women in AI. Women founders in tech are one of the key drivers of innovation, growth, and employment across Europe. | Deadline: June 17 | Apply

Google Startup Perks program | We're excited to launch our new Startup Perks program, offering exclusive benefits and discounts from 20+ leading AI and tech companies within the Google Cloud ecosystem. | More information

The Government has launched a call for “Digital transition of culture and the appropriation of artificial intelligence” projects. | As part of the France 2030 initiative, the goal is to support the digital transformation of the cultural and creative industries. This initiative aims to help cultural actors adopt AI while ensuring ethical use and copyright protection. The program encourages collaboration between cultural organizations and tech companies to develop innovative solutions, from data-sharing tools to secure content management. It seeks to enhance the competitiveness of French creative industries and promote a responsible, Europe-focused AI ecosystem. | More information

Events

☀️ Sponsors' events ☀️

📆 Viva Technology | June 11 - 14 | VivaTech is Europe's biggest startup and tech event. The ninth edition is taking place in Paris, at the Expo Porte de Versailles venue. VivaTech contributes to the acceleration of innovation by connecting startups, technology leaders, large companies, and investors addressing the world's greatest challenges. | Buy Tickets

The Calendar

📆 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 | June 12 | 🚨 Want to 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 in front of Europe's sharpest AI minds? 🧠 150 AI founders, CTOs, AI engineers, researchers & VCs. 🚀 On 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟐, we're turning the lights on at Doctolib’s HQ in Paris, and the brightest GenAI builders will take the stage. | Request to join

📆 The Paris AI Conference 2025 | June 16 | The Paris AI Conference 2025 gathers 250 of France's AI Experts, Founders, Investors, and Enthusiasts, for an evening of content and networking. This event is hosted by Startup Network Europe. | Register

📆 Stripe Tour Paris | June 17 | Join us for Stripe Tour, our global roadshow that brings together business leaders in major cities to discuss the most important trends in payments and financial technology. | Register

📆 RAISE YOUR HACK| July 4-9 | This is your chance to push boundaries, solve real-world challenges, and create impact at the official hackathon of the RAISE Summit 2025 at one of Paris's most iconic venues: Le Carrousel du Louvre. | Sign Up

📆 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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