France is now positioned among the global leaders in artificial intelligence.
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, February 11, 2025: Building on an ambitious national strategy initiated and driven by the President of the Republic since 2017, France is now positioned among the global leaders in artificial intelligence.
More than €109 billion in investments for infrastructure projects in France have been announced during the AI Action Summit.
The French territory has many advantages for hosting dedicated AI infrastructure:
Editorial written by the President Emmanuel Macron of the Republic of France points out a strong political vision for the development of artificial intelligence in France:
France has everything it needs to secure its place in the AI revolution. Talents, in abundance: great scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, students. Decarbonized energy, abundant and provided consistently. Funding and the AI summit will be an opportunity to highlight historic levels of public and private investments, driven by French, European, and international players. Finally, data, which we have to secure and broaden access to. At the heart of Europe, at the heart of the AI revolution, France is a crossroads for all those who want to create and innovate. In this regard, France aims to host and reinforce its talents, corporates, as well as cutting-edge infrastructures for the development and use of AI, to serve its innovation ecosystem, from startups to industry and research laboratories. And if we succeed to position ourselves at the heart of hosting major global infrastructures, France will reduce the sector’s global footprint, thanks to our low-carbon energy mix. This is our ambition: to celebrate our pride, enable success, and bring the progress of tomorrow. To leave our French imprint on the coming century, and to develop a strong project for the deployment of AI at the European level, by supporting the emergence of the best researchers and future international champions. This ambition must be reflected in all our research and training centers. To massively train all French people in this field. To strengthen our research centers, retain, and attract the best researchers. This ambition will also be reflected concretely across all our territories. To achieve this, we have notably worked on identifying sites to help actors develop their projects in France. We can already announce 35 suitable sites, some of which could host projects up to 1GW. The progress driven by AI is already here. Let us deploy it across all our territories. Let us bring it into the lives of everyone.
Building on an ambitious national strategy initiated and driven by the President of the Republic since 2017, France is now positioned among the global leaders in artificial intelligence. FRANCE, A LEADER IN AI France is experiencing rapid growth in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Thanks to sustained innovation dynamics, world’s top-level talents, record fundraising, and the establishment of major international players, the French AI ecosystem is developing and structuring itself at an unprecedented pace. → In 2023, France ranks 3RD in the Stanford Global AI Vibrancy Ranking for research, training, and AI infrastructure → In 2025, France has more than 1,000 AI startups, including gems like Mistral AI, H Company, Poolside, as well as applications such as Alan, Pigment, Doctolib, and more → France has moved from 13TH place in 2023 to 5TH place in 2024 in the Global AI Index → France is the third country in the world in terms of the number of AI researchers → It is now recognized as the leading hub for generative AI in Europe.
FRANCE IS HOME TO LEADING COMPANIES AND A GLOBALLY RECOGNIZED R&D HUB; FRENCH COMPANIES ARE COMPETING WITH THE L ARGEST GLOBAL PLAYERS
France is the R&D base or decision-making center for Europe of several global AI players, such as Mistral AI (valued at €6 billion), Hugging Face (€4.3 billion), and Dataiku (€3.5 billion). The structuring of French investment funds, coupled with the attractiveness of France for foreign investments, enables world-class AI companies to grow. The fundraising of our startups proves it. A DYNAMIC AND ROBUST ECOSYSTEM Since 2021, the number of AI-focused startups in France has doubled, now exceeding 1,000 companies. In 2024, these startups raised €1.9 billion. With 30% of national venture capital investments dedicated to AI, France leads ahead of the United States (28%), the United Kingdom (25%), and China (17%). Remarkable fundraising for companies among the biggest global successes, such as Mistral AI (€1.2 billion), Poolside (€526 million), H (€250 million), Photoroom (€62 million), Aqemia (€60 million), Bioptimus (€40 million), Flex.AI (€35 million), and DUST (€16 million). 16 French unicorns have a value proposition related to AI, confirming the country's excellence in this field. French startups are becoming more attractive and benefiting from more exit opportunities. In 2024, several major transactions marked the ecosystem. Preligens was acquired by Safran and Datakalab by Apple. Finally, LightOn went public in Paris, showcasing the maturity and dynamism of the sector.
Large French companies have also embraced AI:
Thales has structured its organization around the Cortex initiative, while CMA-CGM, Iliad, and Schmidt Futures co-founded the private lab Kyutai. France has been the top destination in Europe for foreign investment projects in AI for over five years, according to the EY barometer. France is the main host country for the AI research and decision-making centers for Europe of global tech giants, such as Alphabet (Google), DeepMind, Meta, OpenAI, as well as Cisco, Criteo, Fujitsu, HPE, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, SAP, and Uber.
France is home to some of the largest computing centers in Europe, both public, such as Jean Zay-GENCI, and private, with players like Scaleway, Outscale, and OVH. France has more than 4,000 AI researchers within its research organizations, spread across 9 centers of excellence (“AI Clusters”) and its major laboratories. Each year, more than 40,000 students and professionals are trained in AI, with the goal of reaching 100,000 trained annually.
