Nvidia marks Paris tech fair with Europe AI push

Nvidia marks Paris tech fair with Europe AI push
By Mona GUICHARD
Paris (AFP) June 11, 2025

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 and 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.

Nvidia trumpets European AI infrastructure push
Paris (AFP) June 11, 2025 - 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.

"In just two years we will increase the amount of AI computing capacity in Europe by a factor of 10," Huang told attendees at the French capital's annual Vivatech trade fair, striding around the stage wearing his trademark leather jacket.

California-based Nvidia is by far the largest producer of chips for AI -- notably the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) originally developed for high-end gaming.

Nvidia's chips have proved uniquely suited for generative AI, whether powering robots, software or self-driving cars.

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.

Basing the billions of euros (dollars) worth of hardware in Europe would offer firms the "strategic autonomy they need", Mistral chief Arthur Mensch told AFP, adding that the project would "strengthen European technological leadership".

Huang said that Nvidia would build up existing partnerships, such as with French electrical goods maker Schneider Electric, including on developing gigantic data centres dedicated to AI -- which Nvidia calls "AI factories".

It will also strengthen work with Germany's Siemens on so-called "digital twins" simluating real-world environments, and on automating industrial processes.

Nvidia plans to feed its chips into data centres across Europe, including in Spain, Italy, Britain, Finland, Germany and Sweden.

The world's government chiefs "all want to have AI factories, they all want AI to be part of their infrastructure," Huang said.

He added that Nvidia was partnering with major companies to develop their own AI models more easily, such as French banking giant BNP or cosmetics heavyweight L'Oreal.

"I'm so happy that Europe is going all-in on AI," he said.

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," French President Emmanuel Macron's office said in a press briefing ahead of the leader's visit to Vivatech.

With its ability to sell into China still crimped by American export restrictions, Nvidia is on the hunt for growth opportunities elsewhere around the world.