France has significantly bolstered its national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy as part of the France 2030 investment plan, committing more than €109 billion to AI infrastructure projects. This ambitious plan aims to position France as a global leader in AI, leveraging the country's existing strengths in research, innovation, and a robust, low-carbon electricity grid. At the heart of this initiative is a strategic partnership between NVIDIA and Mistral AI, an independent generative AI pioneer based in France. Together, they are developing a cutting-edge, end-to-end compute platform designed to meet the comprehensive infrastructure needs of enterprise customers. This platform will feature the latest-generation NVIDIA Grace Blackwell systems, with an initial deployment of 18,000 Blackwell and Blackwell Ultra GPUs, and plans to expand further by 2026. Mistral AI and NVIDIA are also working on optimizing inference performance for several Mistral models, including the new Nemotron model, which is exclusively available through the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform. CEO Arthur Mensch of Mistral AI highlighted the significance of this partnership, stating, "We are forging Europe’s AI future in partnership with NVIDIA, combining strategic autonomy with our expertise in AI and NVIDIA’s most advanced technology." The collaboration will provide businesses and the public sector with the necessary tools to build and manage AI applications while maintaining full control and compliance. Another significant project is the establishment of Europe’s largest AI campus in the Paris region, set to reach a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. This campus, supported by Bpifrance, the French national investment bank, and MGX, a UAE investment fund, will feature advanced NVIDIA compute infrastructure to support the entire AI lifecycle, from model training to deployment. Scaleway, a European cloud service provider founded in France, plays a crucial role in this landscape. The company offers the largest compute capacity in the European cloud, powered by over a thousand NVIDIA Hopper GPUs. Scaleway plans to introduce NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, enabling real-time generative AI on large language models at significantly reduced costs and energy consumption. As a European provider, Scaleway ensures that its infrastructure complies with EU data protection laws, a critical factor for businesses operating within the Union. Orange Business, the enterprise division of one of Europe’s leading telecom operators, has joined the NVIDIA Cloud Partner program. This partnership aims to accelerate the development of enterprise-grade agentic AI, particularly through its innovative Live Intelligence platform. Built on high-performance NVIDIA infrastructure, this platform helps companies deploy generative AI securely and at scale, enhancing operations across various sectors. The public sector in France is also keen on adopting AI technologies. The national rail operator SNCF Gares & Connexions is using NVIDIA technologies to develop digital twins for simulating railway scenarios. Partnering with NVIDIA Omniverse, Metropolis, and ecosystem partners Akila and XXII, SNCF has seen notable improvements in maintenance, response times, and energy efficiency. Specifically, they have achieved a 100% on-time preventive maintenance completion rate, a 50% reduction in downtime and response time, and a 20% reduction in energy consumption. Schneider Electric, a French multinational company driving the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has introduced publicly available reference designs to optimize the performance and energy efficiency of NVIDIA-powered AI data centers. AVEVA, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, is integrating its digital twin platform with NVIDIA Omniverse to create a unified simulation and collaboration environment for data center design and deployment. Electricité de France (EDF), the national electricity company, has partnered with NVIDIA to enhance its open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) application, code_saturne. By utilizing NVIDIA Nsight tools, EDF aims to improve the application's performance for power and industrial uses. This collaboration also involves NVIDIA developer partner ANEO. France’s rich ecosystem of over 1,000 AI startups is thriving, pursuing breakthroughs in various fields. One such startup, Alice & Bob, has integrated NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q hybrid computing platform into its quantum simulation library, Dynamiqs. This has led to a 75x increase in efficiency for complex qubit design simulations. Quandela, another leader in photonic quantum computing, has announced MerLin, a quantum machine learning framework that leverages NVIDIA CUDA-Q for high-performance simulations, enabling developers to build and test new algorithms on larger quantum processors. Moon Surgical, a member of the NVIDIA Inception program, is developing the Maestro System, a minimally invasive surgical robot powered by NVIDIA Holoscan and IGX platforms. They are also collaborating to integrate generative AI features into the operating room, enhancing surgical precision and efficiency. Research centers in France are pivotal in advancing the field. The Jean Zay supercomputer, operated by IDRIS and supported by GENCI, is a prime example. This supercomputer, built by Eviden and powered by more than a thousand NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, supports over 150 startups and has facilitated over 1,400 AI projects in 2024. It is among the most eco-efficient machines in Europe, with waste heat being reused to heat more than 1,500 homes in the Saclay area. Industry insiders laud France's national AI strategy, emphasizing its focus on strategic autonomy and innovation. The country’s commitment to green AI infrastructure is particularly noteworthy, setting a benchmark for sustainable technology practices. Companies like Mistral AI, Scaleway, and Orange Business are leading the charge, demonstrating the practical applications and benefits of AI across diverse industries. This comprehensive approach not only fosters technological advancement but also ensures data security and compliance, critical elements for fostering trust and widespread adoption. NVIDIA’s partnerships and technological contributions are instrumental in realizing France’s vision of becoming a global AI leader. These collaborations highlight a synergistic relationship between private and public sectors, driving both economic and environmental benefits. The upcoming NVIDIA GTC Paris event at VivaTech will showcase the latest advancements and provide insights into future developments in AI.