FRENCH AI STARTUP
Mistral AI publicly releases Large 4, targets cybersecurity users
Mistral said the released version was an upgrade from the one unveiled three weeks ago, following testing with governments and corporate users, which helped improve its performance.
Nvidia's web of AI bets: smart strategy or bubble risk?
Nvidia's $3 billion investment in Meta's share sale, announced Tuesday, is the latest addition to a portfolio of stakes, loans and guarantees that has made the chip giant what some analysts describe as the central bank of the artificial intelligence boom. Nvidia also has around $36 billion in cloud backstops and a guarantee of up to $105 billion linked to an OpenAI data center, according to US media.
Nvidia's Huang hails Europe's AI potential, flanked by robot ducks
In a demonstration of Europe's AI creativity, Huang shared the stage with tiny duck-shaped, AI-trained robots developed by French startup Pollen Robotics in collaboration with Hugging Face, asking them to perform somersaults.
AI researchers are smoking to demonstrate their belief that it will beat cancer: Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar
Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir Technologies, highlighted AI researchers' intense commitments, likening it to social delusion. He pointed out the societal implications and the need for technology companies to showcase tangible benefits to the public. Sankar critiqued the effective altruism movement, relating it to fears about AI's potential threats. He emphasized that regulation should focus on the applications of AI technology in various sectors.
Nvidia buys stakes in four French tech startups: Report
Doctolib had said previously that Nvidia had agreed to buy a minority stake without specifying the size of the stake or its value, though it said the presence of Nvidia would help it to develop artificial intelligence tools.
Scaleway to build AMD-powered AI supercomputer in Sweden
Scaleway is embarking on an ambitious project to build an AI supercomputer in Sweden, which will significantly bolster the European AI infrastructure landscape. The supercomputer will feature AMD Instinct MI355X chips, tailored for advanced AI functionalities. Sweden was chosen for its sustainable energy resources and burgeoning AI industry, and the assembly will be carried out by the French company Bull, showcasing the collaborative efforts in Europe's tech ecosystem.
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In 2017, Google researchers published “Attention Is All You Need”; they were solving translation, but accidentally laid the foundation for today’s AI age
Google Translate once struggled with long sentences because its software processed language one word at a time. This sequential reading approach created severe computational bottlenecks, slowing down translation and causing models to lose context by the time they reached the end of a paragraph. Computer scientists solved this limitation by abandoning step-by-step reading entirely. Their Transformer architecture analyzed full blocks of text simultaneously using self-attention.
Hundreds of thousands turn out for Pope Leo's popemobile parade along Champs-Elysees ahead of Mass
Pope Leo XIV conducted an outdoor Mass in Paris that drew an estimated 700,000 people to the Champs-Elysees. The event highlighted the continuing appeal of the Catholic Church in a predominantly secular France. Many attendees included people of various faiths and backgrounds seeking a message of peace and unity. Attendance has notably increased among young converts to Catholicism in recent years.
IRDAI's commission reset impact; ETSA winner Progcap’s next bet
Happy Friday! IRDAI's overhaul plan could significantly impact the new-age insurance distribution industry. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Europe's AI firms, playing catch-up, challenge US calls for slowdown
Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei in an online essay urged firms to slow the pace at which they improve AI model capabilities and called for an antitrust waiver allowing leading developers to jointly develop safety measures after researchers warned about the dangers of AI, including that it could wipe out humanity.
Crypto's shopping hack; Centre eyes Meta child safeguards
Indians are buying groceries, fuel, food and gold via gift cards on overseas crypto platforms. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.
Nvidia buying artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for $13 billion
Jensen Huang wrote in a blog post Thursday that more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use Hugging Face to share more than 3 million models, 500,000 data sets and 1 million applications. There's also more than 200,000 companies that use the platform, he said.
If Europe's AI sovereignty relies on Mistral, 'we're doomed': French finance minister
European sovereignty in artificial intelligence (AI) cannot depend on a single startup like Mistral, France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure warned on Wednesday, amid tensions between the United States and China over the technology's development. about the possibility that Mistral might abandon developing state-of-the-art AI models to become primarily a provider of computing infrastructure, Lescure declined to directly weigh in.
Europe expands AI computing network with €390 million order from France's Bull
The European Union's supercomputing body EuroHPC selected Bull to build LUMI-AI, the sixth machine ordered under its AI Factories programme. The system is a new supercomputer to be installed alongside the existing LUMI machine at Finland's supercomputing centre. It is expected to come online in the second half of 2027.
Recent Indian executive moves at OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta & other tech majors
Indian executives have recently taken on key leadership roles at some of the world’s biggest AI and technology companies, highlighting the growing demand for Indian talent. Here are some of the notable appointments.
Sarvam appoints Thinking Machines Lab founding member Devendra Singh Chaplot as advisor
Sarvam AI has appointed Devendra Singh Chaplot as an advisor. Chaplot was a founding member of Mistral AI and Thinking Machines Lab. The appointment comes soon after Sarvam AI completed a $300 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Silicon Valley chiefs discuss gigawatts & guardrails at G7
Here’s everything you need to know about what was discussed at Wednesday’s working lunch among tech executives and global leaders.
'Shared ambition of reliable, open, safe AI': Macron at Bharat Innovates seeks ethical use of AI
French President Emmanuel Macron urged against AI monopolisation and called for international cooperation, emphasising India and France's shared commitment to ethical and responsible AI development. The leaders jointly inaugurated 'Bharat Innovates 2026' in Nice, showcasing deep-tech startups and fostering collaboration in innovation and technology for global good.
Mistral AI raises 1.7 billion euros as ASML becomes its top shareholder
ASML is investing 1.3 billion euros in Mistral AI as part of a series C funding round, making it Mistral's main shareholder as it will hold a stake of about 11%.
Apple internally discussed buying Mistral, Perplexity: Report
CEO Tim Cook signaled last month that Apple was open to larger AI-related acquisitions to accelerate its roadmap, a shift from its historically conservative M&A posture.
Mistral in talks with VC firms, MGX to raise funds at $10 billion valuation: Report
The funding would accelerate the commercial rollout of Mistral's Le Chat chatbot and support continued development of its large language models. Mistral counts Nvidia, Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners among its investors.
TotalEnergies forms AI partnership with French startup Mistral
TotalEnergies has partnered with French AI startup Mistral to develop digital tools aimed at boosting energy efficiency, reducing emissions, and improving operations. The collaboration includes creating an AI assistant for project development and customer support, reinforcing Europe’s technological ecosystem and Total’s ongoing AI integration efforts.
Nvidia trumpets European AI infrastructure push
US chip giant Nvidia on Wednesday announced a broad infrastructure push into Europe, partnering with local companies to help build the continent's "own ecosystem" for AI, chief executive Jensen Huang said in Paris. Singling out a local firm, Huang said Nvidia would partner with French AI startup Mistral to build a cloud platform powered by 18,000 of Nvidia's latest high-end Blackwell chips.
Shipping giant CMA CGM and French AI startup target customer service in tie-up
After drawing massive funding, the AI sector is under pressure to deliver gains, with the emergence of low-cost Chinese AI model DeepSeek unsettling investors. Mistral gained huge exposure at an international AI gathering in Paris in February, feted by President Emmanuel Macron as a European champion to compete with American giants such as OpenAI, which produces ChatGPT.
PM Modi in Paris to co-chair AI summit: key points
Political leaders, including US Vice President JD Vance and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing will be in attendance, along with tech leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google chief Sundar Pichai.
France's Mistral hails DeepSeek's AI model
The French firm's own Thursday release, "Mistral Small 3", is "competitive with larger models" including Meta's Llama or Qwen, developed by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, Mistral said. It added that Small 3 was "the most efficient model of its category" and might be used for tasks ranging from customer service to detecting financial fraud or controlling robots.
Michelin, DPIIT join hands for initiative to promote innovation, entrepreneurship
The AI Startup Challenge, which will be conducted over three months (July-September), aims to select, mentor, and collaborate with leading AI startups in India.
Amazon pledges $230 million to boost generative AI startups
The initiative will offer early stage companies AWS cloud computing credits, mentorship, and education to enhance their use of AI and machine learning technologies, according to the company. Participating startups will gain access to AWS computing, storage, database, and custom AI chip services through these credits.
France had no prior knowledge of Microsoft's Mistral AI deal, official says
Earlier this week, Microsoft said it had made a 15-million euro ($16 million) investment in Mistral, and would soon make the Paris-based company's AI models available via its Azure cloud computing platform.
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