👋 This week: Special coverage of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi:

🇮🇳🇫🇷 French President Emmanuel Macron used the summit to position France and India as a third force in the global AI race by championing sovereignty, strategic autonomy, and “civilization-scale” innovation beyond the U.S.–China duopoly. Read it here.

🇮🇳🇫🇷 Mistral AI CEO Mensch warned that unchecked concentration of AI power threatens economic sovereignty and democracy, urging nations to own their infrastructure, embrace open source, and ensure AI serves the many and just not a powerful few. Read it here.

🇮🇳🇫🇷 Ex-Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun pushes back on AGI hype, arguing AI is far from human-level intelligence and better understood as a tool to amplify people. He says the real breakthrough lies not in language models, but in building world models that can navigate the messy physical world. Read it here.

Chris O'Brien + Helen O'Reilly-Durand

Tech Talk

🇮🇳🇫🇷Emmanuel Macron pushed for stronger safeguards against “digital abuse” (after recent deepfake scandals) and pushed back on US criticism of Europe’s AI rulebook, insisting the region is a “safe space” for innovation, not a regulatory killjoy. The subtext: Europe wants to co-write the AI playbook alongside allies like India, carving a “third way” between US tech dominance and China’s state-driven model. Translation for founders and investors: the geopolitical layer of AI is heating up fast...Narendra Modi struck a more philosophical tone, framing AI as a “shared resource for the benefit of all humanity” and calling for global cooperation that embeds human values into the tech stack...OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doubled down on the need for urgent but balanced regulation, warning that concentrating AI power in one country or company “could lead to ruin,” while arguing broad access is key to human flourishing...Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei went full existential: AI capability is on an exponential curve, and systems that outperform humans at most tasks may be only years away - with massive upside (disease cures) and equally serious risks (misuse, job shocks)...Side note: Bill Gates was expected but pulled out at the last minute without a detailed explanation, but with probable links to the Epstein files | Euronews, Les Echos

🏦💰 Bpifrance pumped a record €72 billion into the French economy in 2025 and chalked up €1.3 billion in value creation along the way, according to its latest annual report. Loans hit new highs, investments surged, especially in buzzy sectors like AI, health, and deeptech, and the state innovation bank doubled down on renewables. It also had a big year backing French exporters, mobilizing more than €33 billion as global markets stayed, well, complicated. Direct equity investments and fund-of-funds activity both set records, underscoring the role Bpifrance plays in a cooling macro-funding environment. Net profit dipped from last year but still landed at a solid €501 million. In summary, Bpifrance is a banker, venture capitalist, and industrial strategist all at once. At least until the next presidential election in May 2027. | Les Echos, Bpifrance

🔐🚨 Major French banking data breach raises red flags. Hackers accessed the Ficoba national bank account registry via compromised government credentials, exposing data linked to 1.2 million accounts. No balances leaked, but IBAN, identity, and address are prime fuel for highly targeted fraud. Authorities have contained the intrusion and alerted the CNIL, but the incident raises hard questions around access controls and anomaly detection in critical state systems. Expect a spike in very convincing phishing. | L’Usine Digitale

🏭🤝 Industrial software gets its own factory floor funding. OSS Ventures has secured a €40M first close (targeting €75M) for a new fund dedicated to scaling startups born in its venture studio. Backers include Decathlon Pulse and Teknor Apex, with historical investors doubling down. The thesis: rebuild the bridge between tech and industry. Since 2019, OSS has launched ~30 B2B industrial software startups (22 still active), now deployed across 3,600 industrial sites. Standouts like Fabriq and Kraaft show the model: build in factories, then scale globally. With <1% of French startups tackling industrial challenges, OSS is betting that operator-first, “steel-toe VC” can mint the next wave of industrial champions. | Maddyness, Les Echos, EU Startups, FrenchWeb

⚛️ 💸 Speaking of funds raising funds, Paris-based VC Quantonation has closed a €220M early-stage fund, which is more than 2x its previous vehicle, as global quantum funding surges to a record $5B. The specialist investor will back ~25 startups from pre-seed to Series A across quantum computing, sensing, and communications, with growing interest in error correction and “enabling tech” like control systems and networking. Already known for early bets on Pasqal and Multiverse Computing, Quantonation is broadening its scope to physics-based tech (advanced materials, photonics) as the quantum stack matures. Backers of the new fund include Vertex (Temasek), Bpifrance, and the EIF, a sign that deeptech LP appetite is very much alive. | Sifted, EU Startups

🏭💰 Corporate VCs are also back in force. Non-traditional investors accounted for 77.8% of European VC deals in 2025, near 2021 highs, with corporate venture arms driving much of the surge. CVCs were involved in ~50% of total deal value (€31.6B) and more than 1,700 rounds, increasingly chasing AI and software plays. NVIDIA alone backed 14 European startups last year (including Mistral and Scintil), while groups like ASML, Maersk, and Deutsche Telekom piled in across deeptech, space, and infrastructure. Why founders care: corporates often write bigger checks and stay patient on exits, which is a good match for deeptech timelines. The trade-off: strategic risk if corporate priorities shift. | Les Echos

🕹️😈 That (gaming) Voodoo that you do is paying off. The French heavyweight posted $778 million in revenue in 2025, up 16% year-on-year, cementing its status as France’s largest scale-up by revenue and profit. Crucially, its existing game portfolio grew 6%, a sharp turnaround from the hyper-casual days when older titles would shrink 40% annually, and new launches had to carry the load. Nearly 90% of gaming revenue now comes from casual titles, a $40 billion market Voodoo has deliberately pivoted toward, leaving hyper-casual as a footnote rather than the main act. Meanwhile, diversification is gaining traction. Meanwhile, BeReal, acquired and relaunched, generated €30 million in 2025 revenue, which is up from ZILCH-O. It's stabilizing in France while growing in Japan, with profitability targeted for 2027. With 169 million monthly active users and 1.5 billion annual downloads, Voodoo is scaling up its industrial engine, including testing up to 3,000 prototypes a year, to build longer-lasting franchises. | Les Echos

🚲💥 Another one bites the dust in the e-bike shakeout. French brand Voltaire has entered judicial liquidation, despite solid product love and four takeover offers on the table. The culprit is industrial fragility and supply chain pain. It joins a growing casualty list including VanMoof, Angell, and Rad Power Bikes, as the once-hyped e-bike boom collides with capital intensity, fierce competition, and a 16% market drop in France. Moral of the story: Hardware is still brutally unforgiving. | Les Echos

🎤❗France’s media regulator is stepping into podcast territory for the first time, and it’s starting with a bang. ARCOM has opened an investigation into “10 000 pas,” a charting podcast by influencer Le Raptor, over episodes containing allegedly homophobic and misogynistic remarks that remain online months after publication. While ARCOM has limited direct authority over podcasts, it’s using the EU’s Digital Services Act as leverage, scrutinizing platforms like Deezer, Spotify, and Apple Music to ensure they provide proper reporting tools and remove illegal content when required. In other words, the spotlight is less on the podcaster and more on the platforms hosting him. If they’re found non-compliant, reminders—and potentially sanctions—could follow. It’s a test case that signals Europe’s content crackdown is expanding beyond social media feeds. | Le Figaro

⚖️📉 Legaltech chessboard in motion. French standout Doctrine, fresh from snapping up Spain’s Maite.ai, is reportedly exploring a sale, even though majority owner Summit Partners only came in at €120M in 2023 and was eyeing a 2027 exit. The timing isn’t random: the legal AI race is heating up fast, with new entrants like Harvey and Legora reshaping the competitive landscape. Doctrine’s steady M&A drumbeat (including rival Predictice) has boosted its profile and potentially its price tag. | Les Echos

🏥📊 French healthtech shows quiet resilience. Despite a tougher funding climate, the sector counts 2,788 companies and saw VC investment rise 15% in 2025, bucking global trends. Heavy hitters like Adcytherix, Wandercraft, and Nabla drove momentum, while AI adoption is now mainstream (used by nearly two-thirds of firms). The catch: revenues and R&D spend are slightly down, and international expansion is becoming mission-critical as the French market tightens. | Les Echos

🏢✨ Station F shake-up. After nine years connecting entrepreneurs, investors, and alumni, Marwan Elfitesse has quietly left Station F. The architect behind flagship programs like Founders, Fighters, and Femtech, and Elfitesse, bridged the French Tech ecosystem, from corporates to startups, since 2017, drawing on his Silicon Valley and Microsoft France experience. | Les Echos

Macron in New Delhi: AI Is Not a Game Only the Biggest Can Play

Emmanuel Macron arrived in New Delhi this week with a story, a warning, and a vision.

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit 2026, a follow-up to last year's AI Action Summit co-hosted by France and India in Paris, the French president argued that the global AI race doesn't have to be a two-horse contest between Washington and Beijing.

It was also part of a multi-day, multi-part charm offensive by the president and the French business and tech delegation to tighten the bilateral embrace with the Indian tech giant at a moment when sovereignty is at the top of the agenda, and traditional alliances with historic partners such as the U.S. have become suspect.

Mistral AI's Arthur Mensch Warns Against AI Power Concentration at India AI Summit

Mistral AI co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch delivered a pointed keynote at the India AI Impact Summit, equal parts manifesto and wake-up call.

His core message: The world is sleepwalking toward a dangerous concentration of power in AI, and that the time to change course is now.

"I'm the co-founder of Mistral AI, but I'm also someone who believes that AI should be a tool for empowerment and not for dominance," Mensch said. "While others may speak about scale or speed, I want to talk about something a bit more fundamental, which is who is in control of AI deployment, who benefits from it, and how we can ensure that it serves the many and not the few?"

Yann LeCun Pushes Back on AGI Hype at India AI Summit: "Superintelligence Isn't Close"

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Ami CEO and AI pioneer Yann LeCun argued that despite the breathless hype, we are still far from building machines that rival human intelligence, and that the real revolution will be slower, messier, and more interesting than the tech industry wants you to believe.

In a wide-ranging fireside chat, LeCun laid out his vision of AI not as a looming superintelligence but as "an amplifier for human intelligence." He acknowledged that machines surpassing humans across the board will happen eventually — "maybe in the lifetime of some people here, possibly not in mine" — but insisted the more exciting near-term prospect is building tools that "amplify human intelligence in ways that will accelerate progress."

💸 Top Funding Deals 💸

📇 Company: VIZZIA
🏷️ Sectors: GovTech, SecurityTech, AI, Smart Cities
🔍 Description: VIZZIA develops sovereign video protection solutions dedicated to public safety and urban cleanliness for municipalities. The company integrates hardware, connectivity (4G/5G), and AI-powered investigation tools into a compliant-by-design platform aligned with the GDPR and the EU AI Act, enabling rapid deployment without extensive infrastructure work.
💻 Website: VIZZIA
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series B
💰 Amount Raised: €30M (total funding ~€50M)
🏦 Investors: Headline, Base10 Partners, Sistafund
👨💼👩💼 Founders: Katrin de Proyart, Alexandre Leboucher
🗞️ News: VIZZIA has raised €30M in a Series B to accelerate large-scale deployment of its public safety video protection platform across France, the UK, and Italy. Already operational in dozens of municipalities just months after commercial launch—and with over 250 cities using its anti-dumping solution—the company positions itself as a European leader in sovereign, AI-enabled security infrastructure. Its model combines rapidly deployable 4G/5G-connected cameras with AI-assisted law-enforcement investigation tools, while ensuring encryption, a privacy-by-design architecture, and compliance with evolving European regulations. With 100 employees today and plans to hire 150 more in 2026, VIZZIA aims to equip a new municipality every week this year and establish physical offices in the UK and Italy, reinforcing its ambition to redefine public safety technology in Europe. | Maddyness, Sifted

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