Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, delivering his opening keynote of VivaTech 2025 on the stage of the Dôme de Paris.
The ninth edition of Viva Technology opened at Paris Porte de Versailles on June 11, 2025. As Europe’s largest tech gathering, the event expected more than 165,000 visitors, 14,000 startups and 3,500 exhibitors from 160 countries . From Day 1, VivaTech reaffirmed its commitment to responsible technology. ISO 20121 certified in 2024, the show is increasing its efforts in 2025 to reduce its environmental footprint (vegetarian catering, waste reduction, etc.)vivatechnology.com. A vast 1,500 m² Impact Bridge features 52 startups and innovations with a positive impact, reflecting the importance given to sustainable technologies (waste management, clean energy, health, etc.). For example, the startup Bibak offers a connected system to eliminate disposable packaging, while Dryad Networks deploys solar-powered IoT sensors for early detection of forest fires.
On stage, global AI leaders set the tone. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, delivered a visionary keynote tracing the evolution of AI and detailing the expansion of AI infrastructure in Europe. He notably announced that “everything physical will first be built virtually” : digital twins of robots, factories, or systems will allow them to be fully designed and tested in simulation before deployment. Huang also revealed a partnership to build the first industrial AI cloud in Europe, in collaboration with the French startup Mistral AI . This expansion is part of a desire to move Europe from a consumer to a producer in the AI economy: “Europe has woken up to the importance of building AI infrastructures,” he stated , predicting a tenfold increase in computing capacity in Europe within two years thanks to these next-generation “AI factories.”
Another highlight, Joe Tsai, Chairman of Alibaba, stressed the importance of open source in AI. “Open source allows the development of a developer community, which can improve your technology. Once a rich ecosystem is built, your technology improves. Open source sort of democratizes the use of AI,” he said, emphasizing the power of collaborative innovation. For his part, Yann LeCun, VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, argued for specialized AI surpassing humans on specific tasks: “We must work on machines that are more capable than us in certain tasks for which we are not good. This is the best way to assist humans,” he explained, highlighting human-AI complementarity. Finally, Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI, called for the development of sovereign AI in Europe for three reasons: “The first is cultural” – as AI generates content that shapes our minds, Europe must be able to personalize it to its values. “The second is strategic” – it is unthinkable to let foreign actors control systems used in our critical infrastructures (defense, energy, public services). “Finally,” thanks to intra-European partnerships, “we can integrate the continent’s technological ecosystem and foster the emergence of European champions,” he concluded, highlighting the opportunity to federate the talent and resources of the Old Continent.
This first day thus set out the major challenges of VivaTech 2025: open innovation, technological sovereignty, and positive impact. Alongside the AI giants, the presence of many public officials – including the Prime Minister and several French ministers, as well as delegations from a dozen countries – illustrated how technology has become a strategic priority. The tone is set for the rest of the show: transforming the potential of tech into concrete progress, serving society and the sustainable economy.
