The ninth edition of VivaTech has officially begun, and we were thrilled to welcome our attendees in Paris once again. Let's recap the highlights from Day One.
Jensen Huang's Keynote
Jensen Huang, Founder & CEO of NVIDIA, delivered a visionary keynote that charted the evolution of artificial intelligence and highlighted the company’s expansion of AI infrastructure across Europe.
The Waves of AI
Huang outlined the evolution of AI in waves:
Perception AI – systems that interpret the world through vision, sound, and language.
Generative AI – models that can create text, images, code, and more using multimodal learning.
Agentic AI – the current wave, where AI agents reason, plan, and act. These systems are autonomous, goal-oriented, and increasingly embodied in the physical world through robotics.
“In the last couple of years, we started a new wave: agentic AI, with its physical embodiment — robotics — coming soon.”
AI Factories: Infrastructure That Produces Intelligence
Huang emphasized a shift in how we should think about data center infrastructure. AI data centers, he argued, aren’t passive back-end tools; they are “token factories”, actively producing the output of reasoning models like ChatGPT.
As demand for generative and agentic AI grows, these tokens require exponentially more compute. Huang highlighted Grace Blackwell, NVIDIA’s latest generation GPU platform, as an answer engineered for large-scale inference and training.
“Blackwell is an engineering marvel. We have never produced supercomputers like these before… and it is just the beginning.”
These AI factories will be as essential as electricity or the internet and countries should consider them critical infrastructure.
Europe’s Strategic Role in the AI Economy
A major theme of the keynote was Europe’s shift from a consumer to producer in the AI economy. Huang announced that NVIDIA is working with players like Orange, Telefónica, Telenor, Swisscom, and Fastweb to build advanced AI infrastructure across the continent.
“Europe has now awakened to the importance of building AI infrastructure.”
Within the next two years, NVIDIA expects AI computing capacity in Europe to grow tenfold, enabled by digitally designed AI factories and new partnerships—most notably, with French generative AI pioneer Mistral AI to build a dedicated AI cloud.
Specialization at Scale: LLM Deployment with Lepton
Huang also touched on a rising challenge in AI deployment: specialization. As large language models become more optimized for legal, medical, customer service, or robotics tasks, deploying and managing them efficiently becomes difficult.
That’s where NVIDIA DGX Cloud Lepton comes in. It’s designed to orchestrate many small, specialized “microsystems”, allowing companies to scale modular AI across applications without bundling everything into one monolithic model.
Industrial AI and Human Robotics
Looking ahead, Huang announced plans to build the world’s first Industrial AI Cloud in Europe, focused on design, simulation, and the creation of digital twins. With powerful simulation engines and virtual training environments, everything from robots to factory systems can be built and tested digitally before deployment.
“Everything physical will first be built virtually.”
Canada: AI’s Northern Powerhouse – From Research to Commercialization
As VivaTech 2025’s Country of the Year, Canada brought a strong delegation of 600 people and 100 companies to Paris, spotlighting its growing role as a global AI leader. Clara Chappaz, France’s Minister for AI and Digital Affairs, opened the session by stressing the geopolitical dimension of technology and the deep potential for Canada–France collaboration in responsible AI development.
Hélène Desmarais, a major figure in Canadian business, welcomed the recognition. “We are here to show you the best of Canadian AI — useful, responsible, inclusive, and deeply committed to the common good.”
Canada’s newly appointed Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, called the current moment a “Gutenberg moment” for technology, arguing that AI offers a transformational economic opportunity — but only if built on trust, safety, and international cooperation. Backed by a new .5 billion federal AI commitment, Solomon emphasized Canada’s advantages: top research talent, clean energy for sustainable compute, and a stable investment environment.
Four startups, Mappedin, Airudi, PowerPoint Technology, and Videns, then took the stage to showcase Canada’s innovation across workforce tech, consulting, and infrastructure. Their founders pointed to Canada’s strong academic-business pipeline and its unique ability to bridge U.S. and European markets.
“The future of AI will be written by those of us who invest boldly, protect wisely, and advance quickly,” Solomon concluded.
Silicon & Synapses: AI Meets Brain Science
The session “Silicon & Synapses: Brain New Operating System” spotlighted how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing neuroscience and reshaping the future of brain health. Opening the discussion, Stéphanie Debette, Executive Director of the Paris Brain Institute, set the tone with a stark reminder. “One in three people will be affected by a brain disorder during their lifetime.” She also pointed out the enormous economic burden, with brain diseases costing over €1,000 billion in 2014 alone.
Two pioneering startups presented how AI can unlock new solutions. Dr. Nisim Perets, CEO of Itay&Beyond, described how his team uses AI and lab-grown brain tissue from patient-derived cells to personalize drug screening. “We analyze the electromechanical activity of brain organoids using AI to predict which treatments will work best.” This approach aims to replace animal testing with more accurate, human-specific models.
XARLabs, founded by neurosurgeon Dr. Ali Haddad, is combining augmented reality and AI to assist complex brain surgeries and train autonomous systems.“We’re transforming surgical precision and opening up access to advanced procedures worldwide by sharing thousands of hours of surgical knowledge.”
Together, these innovators are not just advancing medical research — they’re shaping a new paradigm where AI-powered tools will become standard in clinical practice, offering more precise, effective, and accessible care.
Leaders Talk AI: Macron, Mensch & Huang Unplugged
VivaTech 2025 closed its opening day with a conversation featuring French President Emmanuel Macron, NVIDIA CEO and Founder Jensen Huang, and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch, moderated by Publicis Group’s Maurice Lévy. The discussion focused on Europe’s role in the AI revolution, from infrastructure and sovereignty to partnerships and long-term vision.
Jensen Huang reflected on NVIDIA’s early days, emphasizing the value of persistence and adaptability. More importantly, he stressed the importance of national AI autonomy. “You can outsource a lot of things — but outsourcing your intelligence makes no sense.”
Arthur Mensch, whose company Mistral AI recently announced a major partnership with NVIDIA, spoke about Europe’s opportunity to lead not just in research, but in infrastructure and product development.
“We’ve moved from training models to building products — and now, to managing infrastructure. It’s a critical next step for Europe.”
President Macron welcomed the partnership as a turning point for European AI capacity. “It creates the ability to scale up and build a real French and European offer. This is a game changer.”
The conversation also touched on cultural and strategic imperatives. For Macron, Europe must invest in AI not just for competitiveness, but to safeguard its values. “It’s about our intelligence, our brain, our culture, and our history — and we want to preserve this diversity.”
With support from public leaders and partnerships between established tech giants and fast-growing startups, the session made clear that Europe is serious about shaping its own AI future.
We'll Be Back Tomorrow
There’s still so much to come on stage at VivaTech over the next three days, so don’t miss a moment! Follow the latest announcements and highlights on Instagram, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
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