French Entrepreneur Reveals Massive Investment in Artificial Intelligence

27 Sep, 2023

French Entrepreneur Reveals Massive Investment in Artificial Intelligence

With an estimated investment of €200 million, the funds will be allocated towards acquiring a supercomputer and establishing a dedicated research laboratory, as revealed by French entrepreneur Niel in an interview with the French news agency AFP scheduled for Tuesday. The primary goal is to provide a broad spectrum of services to companies seeking to advance their own AI applications.

This initiative comes as Europe strives to narrow the gap with the United States in the race for artificial intelligence, aiming to rival the substantial investments made by American tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta. Niel emphasized, "For artificial intelligence to thrive, you require three key elements: researchers, computational power, and companies that harness these resources."

Niel elaborated further, emphasizing the importance of retaining AI capabilities within Europe: "We genuinely need this to ensure that innovative developments originate here and to prevent the outflow of our data. It's essential that AI isn't reliant on algorithms developed elsewhere that aren't of European origin."

To achieve their objectives, Iliad has acquired a supercomputer from Nvidia, a prominent American processor manufacturer. This supercomputer will bolster Scaleway, Iliad's subsidiary providing cloud computing services, with "the most extensive computational capacity" available on the continent.

Furthermore, Iliad unveiled the establishment of an AI research laboratory of excellence in Paris, already endowed with "more than €100 million." Its mission is centered on the development and democratization of "artificial general intelligence." While the specific research team members remain undisclosed, the company asserts that they have assembled a group of internationally recognized researchers with a decade of experience working with leading international players in the AI market.

Iliad also announced plans to organize its inaugural European AI conference, aiming to become a key annual event on AI in Europe. The first edition is scheduled for November 17th at Station F, the world's largest startup incubator in Paris, founded by Niel in 2017.