-> RAISE Summit 2025: Paris at the heart of the global artificial intelligence scene
- (Photograph of the Groq stand)
On July 8 and 9, 2025, the RAISE Summit transformed the Carrousel du Louvre into a true global crossroads for artificial intelligence. For this second edition, the event brought together more than 6,000 participants, 250 international speakers, and thousands of exchanges between startups, large groups, investment funds, and public institutions.
A clear ambition: asserting France’s position in global AI
Created by Hadrien de Cournon and Henri Delahaye, two entrepreneurs familiar with startup and venture capital environments, the RAISE Summit was born from a simple observation: “In France, there is a very powerful driving environment around artificial intelligence”. Their ambition: to promote the entire French AI ecosystem, from researchers to industrialists, including investors and startups.
The summit was designed in three stages:
- Innovation & transformation, with concrete use cases shared by giants like Dassault, LVMH, or L’Oréal
- Technology & infrastructure, with figures like Arthur Mensch (Mistral AI) or Jonathan Ross (Groq)
- Financing & socio-economic issues, centered around the role of capital in the responsible development of AI
On stage: the big names of global AI
The RAISE Summit stage saw the biggest names in the sector pass by, including:
- Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google
- Aravind Srinivas, founder of Perplexity AI
- Jonathan Ross, founder of Groq, the American startup revolutionizing AI hardware
- Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI
Note: a persistent rumor during the event mentioned a potential deal in preparation between Groq and Mistral, highlighting the transatlantic strategic dynamics running through the ecosystem.
Focus: Groq – AI power designed for Europe
Present at the RAISE Summit 2025, the American company Groq, founded by Jonathan Ross (also one of the creators of Google’s first TPU), captivated the audience with its radically pragmatic vision of the future of AI.
“Nobody wants to buy chips”, says Jonathan Ross. “People want to run software, LLMs. They want it to be fast and cheap”, he declared during his intervention in Paris.
It is in this spirit that Groq developed ultra-high-performance AI processors, specifically designed to run language models faster, smoother, and at a lower cost.
And beyond technological performance, Groq is investing in its strategic presence in Europe: the company has just chosen an Equinix data center in Helsinki as its European base camp. The goal? To offer the continent’s companies and public institutions a high-performance solution, hosted locally, and meeting the growing challenges of technological sovereignty.
Groq thus perfectly embodies one of the key messages of the RAISE Summit: Europe is today both a ground for innovation, competition, and consolidation in the global AI race.
A high-level startup competition
A highlight of the RAISE Summit: the “RAISE the Stakes” competition, which saw more than 1,100 AI startups from 67 countries compete. Hirundo won the 1st global prize, thanks to its “machine unlearning” technology, allowing AIs to forget undesirable or biased data. An innovation praised by a prestigious jury (Sequoia, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Google…).
France at the crossroads in AI
While France has strong assets — excellence in research, recognized talents, a dynamic ecosystem — several challenges remain:
- A lag in private financing, despite significant public support
- A highly competitive global race, driven by billions in American investments (e.g., Chips and Science Act in the USA: $52.7 billion)
- Regulation issues: the European AI Act, while protective, sparks debates on competitiveness
Hadrien de Cournon summarizes: “AI is a hot topic. It feels like 1995 when the Internet arrived. Everything is moving very fast, and you have to know how to position yourself intelligently.”
Conclusion
The RAISE Summit 2025 confirms that Paris not only has the ambition to become an artificial intelligence hub, but is resolutely taking that path. With international leaders on stage, a French startup at the head of the competition, and an ability to bring together all the players in the ecosystem, the event establishes itself as a European pillar of the AI debate.
See you in July 2026 for the next edition!
By Marie Pezé
