🧠 France ranks in the global AI Top 5 for talent and adoption, but lags far behind the U.S. and China in models, funding, and scale. The latest Stanford HAI Index shows a nation strong in depth, but still struggling to shape the AI frontier.

🧠 As renewable energy scales, site selection remains a critical barrier. Backed by a recent €3.3M funding round, Plume is building an AI platform to help developers navigate complex geospatial and regulatory data, accelerating decision-making and improving project success rates. Co-Founder and CEO Edouard Labarthe explains the vision and strategy.

🧠 We built an interactive map of every public and private AI research laboratory in France, reconstructed from MESR open data and the CNRS INS2I registry. Filter by type. Click any lab for details.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

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Headlines

🗞️ The French government is accelerating its push for “digital sovereignty,” by announcing is main digital agency, DINUM, is ditching Windows in favor of Linux, and ordering all government agencies to come up with a plan for migrating off of non-European digital platforms by this Fall. The move is part of a broader plan to cut reliance on non-European tech, with details on tools and infrastructure coming this fall. It’s not just operating systems either: tens of thousands of public workers have already been nudged off Teams and Zoom onto homegrown open-source alternatives built with open-source tools. | TNW

🗞️ Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch has become pretty comfortable using the political capital that comes with being one of Europe's hottest AI startups. In recent weeks, he's been on a series of diplomatic tours and has called for several public policy reforms. Now, he's calling for greater European control of AI defense. As Brussels gears up to unveil a major sovereignty package, the French AI darling is lobbying hard for “European-controlled” everything, from data centers to critical workloads. Mistral published its own analysis and proposal. Its pitch is simple: relying on foreign tech leaves Europe exposed to politics, supply shocks, and lost value. | Politico, Mistral AI Proposal

🗞️ The Banque de France is taking a measured, slightly technocratic view of the AI boom: yes, it could boost growth and productivity, but don’t expect any neat conclusions—especially when it comes to inflation or jobs. Where things get more concrete is in finance, where AI is already everywhere and raising fresh concerns about systemic risk, opaque models, and an awkward dependence on a handful of big tech providers. Inside the institution, AI is less theory and more tool, with copilots, “SupTech,” and internal automation quietly reshaping how the central bank operates. But the real subtext is sovereignty: when your job is to safeguard the system, outsourcing your brain to non-European tech starts to look less like innovation and more like a strategic risk. | Banque of France

🗞️ Welcome to the Jungle is calling time on the humble job board, arguing that in the age of AI-fueled application spam, the old “post and pray” model just doesn’t cut it anymore. The French startup is pivoting hard to an “AI-native” recruiting platform, bundling sourcing, matching, and tracking into one algorithm-heavy suite designed to fix what it sees as a broken hiring funnel. The pitch: fewer irrelevant applications, smarter matching, and less tool chaos for overwhelmed recruiters. | Maddyness

🗞️ OVHcloud is leaning hard into Europe’s sovereignty moment, spinning up a dedicated defense unit after ministries came knocking for cloud and AI that doesn’t come with a Stars-and-Stripes dependency. The pitch is familiar by now: secure, “sovereign” infrastructure for everything from drone coordination to AI-powered command systems. At the same time, the company is quietly playing defense for itself, stockpiling hardware and nudging up prices to stay ahead of rising costs. OVH wants to be both Europe’s cloud shield and its arms dealer for the AI era. | Reuters, OVHcloud

🗣️Responsible AI🗣️

A look at the big stories this past week from Responsible & Frugal AI expert James Martin, of BetterTech.

Responsible AI, you say? It's those rare occasions when the relentless "bigger is better" steamroller takes a coffee break. Often, for the good of our planet, our children, and theirs. Don't worry, we're not about to get all sanctimonious on y'all.

But if you consider that even investors as big as Trillium Asset Management (a $4bn fund) are pressuring Google to answer how it will meet its emissions reductions targets given (AI) data centers' surging energy thirst is pushing said emissions the wrong way (up 50% in recent years; more from Reuters), a major client walkout may well be brewing.

And what about safety? Is Mythos really "too dangerous to release", or is it just yet another case of "myth marketing", where the AI lab boosts its stock value with attention-seeking news "leaks"? You know, like when Dario Amodei says its models might be "conscious"? Think about it... Oh and could the wind finally be dropping from OpenAI's sails? Consider: 1/. The end of Sora 2/. Backtracking on Stargate Abilene 3/. Backtracking on Stargate UK, for "energy" reasons (The Guardian) 4/. One star journalist confirming what another star journalist had already told us: that Sam Altman can't be trusted further than he can be thrown. Rationalizing pre-IPO? Or signs of something more fundamentally worrying? One potential workaround: if everyone opted for more frugal AI than for mega models like Claude or GPT-5, we might not be in this energy/water/chip/responsibility shortage mess in the first place. Food for thought... 

ICYMI

🗞️ From French Government Insider to AI Disruptor: Why Laurie Soffiati Bet on Nabla After Calling HealthTech 'Ineffective' | As Nabla gains international attention through its close ties to Yann LeCun’s AMI, one of the most ambitious AI research labs, Soffiati joins at a pivotal moment in the shift toward next-generation, agentic healthcare systems. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ AMI: Breaking Down Europe’s Record Seed Round | New filings reveal how Advanced Machine Intelligence closed a near full raise with at least 67 investors, giving them classic protections while retaining full control in just 2.5 weeks. | The French Tech Journal

🗞️ Lemrock and the Rise of Agentic Commerce: Infrastructure for a New Discovery Layer | As AI conversations replace search as the starting point for online shopping, Paris startup Lemrock wants to ensure brands don’t disappear from the buying journey. The deeptech has raised $7M to build the infrastructure connecting retailers directly to AI agents. | The French Tech Journal

🧠 Plume Believes AI Can Solve Europe’s Biggest Renewable Energy Bottleneck

Behind the urgency of Europe’s energy transition lies a quieter, more complex problem: not building renewable infrastructure, but figuring out where to build it.

Paris-based startup Plume believes the problem is fundamentally a data problem and can be solved with AI.

This week, the Franco-American company announced a €3.3 million funding round led by AENU, with participation from Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, Raise Sherpa, and Collab Fund. The funding will support its expansion across Europe and into the US, as well as continued product development.

Beyond the funding, Plume is positioning itself as something more ambitious: an intelligence layer for renewable energy development.

🧠 France’s AI Reality Check: Stanford HAI Report Reveals a Strong Contender—But Not a Global Leader

If you want to understand France’s place in the global AI race, the latest Stanford HAI Index paints a picture that is neither bleak nor triumphant. Instead, it perhaps offers a decent reality check of France as distinctly “second tier, with pockets of excellence.”

Pulling back from any specific metric, one thing stands out across the 423-page report: France consistently shows up on the charts, more than many countries can say. While it rarely leads, that's hardly unexpected given its relative size and resources. It's worth noting that it still consistently ranks in the Top 5 on many of these measures.

Of course, that may feel like a blow to French pride. That puts it in a crowded middle where it's strong enough to matter, but not quite strong enough to shape the frontier or the policies that count. Still, I'd say it's in the upper end of the mix, and given the stakes and fierce competition, that is nothing to sneeze at.

📍France's 81 Public And Private AI Research Laboratories

Since France launched its National AI Strategy in 2018, it's always included one compelling figure in its global marketing pitch: the number of AI labs. Just last week, during a convoy of ministers on a trip to 'Frisco for an AI conference, I saw this number drop in a LinkedIn carousel: "We have 81 AI labs, the most in Europe, y'all!" (loose translation on my part)

So, what and where are these 81 labs? That information is a little trickier to pin down because there isn't a handy dandy list in any of the 10,000 or so National Strategy docs released. Nor is there one on the various research or government websites.

And so, we decided to make a map of what we think are the 81 public and private AI labs and put it together for your viewing and sorting pleasure. If we missed one, holla at us.

🗣️ Announcements 🗣️

🗣️ PSG Labs — Spring 2026 Call for Applications | Spring 2026 | Paris (Hybrid) | PSG is inviting startups and builders to apply with AI-driven solutions across three strategic areas: fan engagement (data activation, community platforms, wellbeing, experiences), athlete performance (computer vision training, recovery optimization, AI-driven personalization), and club operations (AI agents, video indexing, threat detection). A unique opportunity to collaborate with one of the world’s leading sports organizations and deploy cutting-edge AI in real-world environments. | Apply now

📆 Events 📆

📆 OpenText Summit Paris 2026 | April 15 | Palais Brongniart | AI is everywhere and full of promise — but without contextualized data, governance, and security, AI fails. Join OpenText Summit Paris 2026 to discover how to unlock the intelligence of your enterprise data and activate AI with confidence. Expect visionary keynotes, French customer success stories, real-world use cases, in-depth small-group sessions, live demos, expert meetings, and peer networking. Explore the latest innovations in content management, cybersecurity, service management, business networks, and more — and learn how to deploy responsible, compliant AI with full control and freedom of choice. | Register

📆 Paris Blockchain Week 2026 | April 15–16 | Carrousel du Louvre | Paris | Europe’s premier gathering for the institutional digital asset ecosystem, bringing together 10,000+ founders, investors, policymakers, and corporate leaders from 100+ countries. The event covers the future of digital finance — from tokenized assets and stablecoin payments to institutional custody, regulation, and market infrastructure — through keynotes, panels, startup competitions, and high-level networking. | Get tickets

📆 GO Entrepreneurs 2026 | April 15–16 | Paris La Défense Arena | One of France’s largest entrepreneurship gatherings, bringing together 50,000+ founders and business leaders for 48 hours of inspiration, learning, and networking. Expect 600 speakers, 250 talks, and 10 tailored tracks covering innovation, growth, resilience, and performance — plus hands-on support from 300 partners and extensive networking opportunities to help entrepreneurs at every stage scale their ventures. | Register

📆 AI Now Summit by Mistral AI | May 28 | Paris | A one-day summit focused on moving AI from theory to real-world impact, bringing together tech leaders, builders, researchers, and executives deploying AI at scale. Hear from global CEOs, Mistral’s founders, and leading practitioners on building production-ready AI systems, scaling from pilots to enterprise use cases, and unlocking measurable business value across industries. | Register

📆 VivaTech 2026 | June 17–20, 2026 | Paris Expo Porte de Versailles | Europe’s largest startup and technology event returns for its 10th anniversary, bringing together 180,000+ attendees, 14,000 startups, 3,600 investors, and thousands of global tech leaders. Expect world-class speakers from companies like NVIDIA, Mistral AI, Hugging Face, Meta, and Anthropic, alongside startup showcases, investor meetings, product launches, and major conversations shaping the future of AI, tech, and innovation. | Get tickets

📆 RAISE Summit 2026 | July 8–9, 2026 | Carrousel du Louvre, Paris | Join one of Europe’s most influential AI gatherings bringing together thousands of builders, investors, executives, and innovators to shape the future of artificial intelligence. Learn from global leaders through keynotes, panels, workshops, a hackathon, startup competitions, and high-impact networking — all curated to accelerate AI strategy, investment, and real-world deployment across industries. | Tickets

📆 Economic Data Science Society (EDSS) Conference 2026 | July 9–10 | Banque de France, Paris | The inaugural conference at the intersection of AI, data science, and economics, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders from institutions like the IMF, ECB, and leading universities. Explore topics such as machine learning for economic forecasting, LLMs in economic analysis, alternative data (satellite, web scraping), and AI governance — alongside keynote talks, academic sessions, and hands-on training workshops. | Apply

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