When French President Emmanuel Macron took the stage at Viva Technology in 2017, he spoke about the need to create a European alternative to U.S. and Chinese AI.
Eight years later at Viva Technology 2025 that vision moved closer to reality when Paris-based European AI champion Mistral AI announced a partnership with U.S. AI chipmaker Nvidia to build an end-to-end AI European compute and Cloud platform.
Arthur Mensch, Mistral AI’s CEO explained “we’ve moved from training models to building products — and now, to managing infrastructure. It’s a critical next step for Europe.”
Macron called the announcement “historic” during an on-stage exchange with Mistral AI CEO Artur Mensch, Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Publicis Group’s Maurice Lévy.” It creates the ability to scale up and build a real French and European offer,” said the president. For Macron, Europe must invest in AI not just for competitiveness, but to safeguard its values. “It’s about our intelligence, our culture, and our history — and we want to preserve this diversity,” he said.
In a press release Mistral AI said the aim of its partnership with Nvidia is to “provide a competitive edge to entire industries and countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the entire Southern Hemisphere that have been waiting for an alternative to US or China-based cloud and AI providers.”
AI and quantum computing – and European tech sovereignty-were a big focus at this year’s VivaTech, which attracted some 165,000 participants, including some 13,000+ startups. Nvidia was the star of the show but as usual the conference included a number of high-profile speakers, such as pwc global chairman Mohamed Kande (pictured here during a panel on the Future of Making, Moving and Powering: How Is AI Reshaping Industrial Operations moderated by The Innovator’s Editor-in-Chief)
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