Paris (AFP) – Drawing high-powered tech CEOs and a presidential visit, the Vivatech trade fair opened in Paris on Wednesday with a bang as Nvidia boss Jensen Huang announced a major push into Europe. “In just two years we will increase the amount of AI computing capacity in Europe by a factor of 10,” Huang told a packed hall in a southern Paris convention centre, striding around the stage wearing his trademark leather jacket. He also announced a multi-billion-dollar partnership with French AI champion Mistral AI.
President Emmanuel Macron hailed the Nvidia-Mistral tie-up as a “historic” opportunity for France and Europe, urging other local firms to climb aboard. He had arrived late on Wednesday afternoon for a tour of the show and meetings with European startups about technological sovereignty, a subject dear to his heart. “We want AI…that’s secure, sustainable, humanist,” Macron said.
People from around the globe thronged the halls of Vivatech, crammed with stands in blaring colours showing off the latest innovations from startups, tech giants and more traditional firms, patrolled here and there by gesticulating robots. Around 14,000 startups and more than 3,000 investors were expected in Paris, while organisers forecast total visitor numbers to at least equal last year’s 165,000 people.
– Nvidia headlining –
Nvidia’s Huang took top billing with an opening presentation of almost two hours that drew bouts of rapturous applause from attendees. The US firm’s tie-up with Mistral will see the companies build a cloud computing platform powered by 18,000 of Nvidia’s “Blackwell” high-end chips worth billions. Speaking in a panel discussion with Huang and Macron, Mistral chief Arthur Mensch said the offering would be “completely independent” in a nod to the president’s sovereignty drive. “You’re no longer relying for your AI workload on certain of the US providers,” he promised the audience.
Macron dubbed the Mistral-Nvidia collaboration a “game-changer, because it will increase our sovereignty and it will allow us to do much more” with AI. Europe “has put its ability to produce things in danger” and “become more and more dependent on the rest of the world,” he warned. Aside from Mistral, Nvidia will also intensify work with existing partners like Germany’s Siemens and France’s Schneider Electric, Huang said. And it will help build multiple data centres in seven European countries.
Europe is well behind competitors like the United States and China in building up the computing power needed to power generative artificial intelligence. The continent hosts “less than five percent of global computing power, whereas we consume 20 percent,” Macron’s office said in a press briefing ahead of the leader’s visit to Vivatech.
– Trade war –
Nvidia has seen export restrictions slapped on its top-performing chips by Washington, with American politicians leery of ceding their country’s lead in generative AI. Remaining high-tech controls on China are at issue in high-stakes trade talks with Beijing. Huang has warned that the US’ superpower rival is nevertheless making swift strides to catch up.
There was little sign of impact from export restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales in its May earnings release. But the company has warned the braking effect may be larger in the current quarter. US politics also preoccupies many European tech leaders and policymakers. Concerns range from Trump’s mercurial tariff policy to the continent’s ability to stand on its own without US tech giants — and the massive gap in funding for AI development between the two sides of the Atlantic.
“Sovereignty, which wasn’t as important in the conversation just a year or two years ago, has become an absolutely strategic priority,” Vivatech managing director Francois Bitouzet told AFP. Macron’s hammering on tech sovereignty followed on from his hyping of French and European openness to AI at a Paris global summit in February. Macron, Mensch and Huang were set to dine together behind closed doors at the president’s Elysee Palace residence on Wednesday evening.
© 2024 AFP
