Billionaires including Eric Schmidt plow $300 million into a non-profit that is France's latest push to catch up in AI | Fortune

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Abstraction: France's €300M open-source AI research nonprofit kyutai launched

Key points:

Xavier Niel (Iliad) and Rodolphe Saadé (CMA CGM) each invest €100M; Eric Schmidt contributes an undisclosed amount via Schmidt Ventures
The lab, called kyutai, will produce open-source research and is headquartered in Paris
Scientists recruited include former Google DeepMind researchers Neil Zeghidour and Laurent Mazare, and Meta alumni Hervé Jégou, Edouard Grave, and Alexandre Defossez
Niel and Saadé are also seed investors in Mistral AI, France's leading generative AI startup
The initiative reflects European concern about US tech giants (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) dwarfing continental AI investment

Connections: Eric Schmidt · Kyutai · Mistral AI · Google Deepmind · Sovereign AI · Open Source AI