Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron asked chipmaker Nvidia to start producing advanced semiconductors in the country. He made this proposal after CEO Jensen Huang told participants that Nvidia's first chip was made in France.
Macron spoke alongside Huang and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mench during a panel at the event. The discussion focused on both France's ties to chip manufacturing and its ambitions to catch up with the West in advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI).
Huang from Nvidia revealed that the company's first graphics processing unit (GPU) was manufactured in France by SGS Thomson Microelectronics, now known as STMicroelectronics.
The company is one of the largest chip manufacturers in Europe, but only in the lower segment of chips used in automotive and industrial applications. It does not produce powerful processors that support the latest AI systems.
President Macron wants France to manufacture advanced semiconductors.
"If we want to consolidate our industry, we now need to get more chips at the right scale," said the French president, urging France to start producing chips ranging from 2 nanometers to 10 nanometers. This scale is necessary for high-performance computing and AI.
Only a few companies in the world, including Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung, are currently capable of manufacturing chips at such a scale in significant quantities.
Macron hinted that France could try to attract companies to build local manufacturing capacities, like in the United States, where TSMC has promised $100 billion for new chip facilities.
The president also mentioned a deal between French defense group Thales, electronics manufacturer Radiall, and Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn. The companies are reportedly planning to create a semiconductor assembly and testing facility in France.
"I want to convince them to start production in France," Macron continued.
During the event, Nvidia announced several new partnerships to expand its influence in AI infrastructure in Europe. One of the announced collaborations is with Mistral AI, a French AI company founded in 2023 that specializes in open large language models and proprietary models.
"We are deepening investments with them and accelerating the process. And what Mistral AI and Nvidia announced this morning is also very good," Macron told reporters at a briefing after the event.
Mistral AI's expansion to meet European demand.
Mistral AI, headquartered in Paris, is undoubtedly one of the leading AI model developers in Europe. The company recently released two new generative reasoning models that, according to them, "show results on par" with OpenAI and Google models.
These models were created using reinforcement learning, a process in which systems improve by solving problems through trial and reward, rather than through programming with direct solutions.
In an interview on Wednesday, CEO Arthur Mench stated that there is insatiable demand in Europe for AI solutions that do not rely on U.S. tech giants.
"European leaders just don't want to be talked to like that," he suggested, referring to comments made by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in February, who believes that America will dominate AI development and will remain in this role in the near future.
Mistral is reportedly building a 40-megawatt data processing center equipped with 18,000 Nvidia chips near Paris. The site could expand to 100 megawatts within 18 months to give European clients direct access to AI infrastructure without U.S. oversight.
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