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Hard Numbers: France forges ahead, Crushing consulting, Say hi to my AI avatar, OpenAI’s big buy, Stability finds some cash

June 25, 2024
Scott Nover
​French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity (GFAIH) at the Institut de France in Paris, France October 30, 2019.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity (GFAIH) at the Institut de France in Paris, France October 30, 2019.
Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
2.29 billion: France is Europe’s leader in generative AI, raising more in venture capital — $2.29 billion to date — than the next three countries combined. Those are the UK ($1.15 billion), Israel ($1.04 billion), and Germany ($636 million). In France, startups like Mistral, H, Poolside, and Hugging Face lead the way, and President Emmanuel Macron has been trying for years to establish a lucrative tech sector.

21 billion: Accenture’s generative AI business is booming. The consulting firm’s practice, which helps companies use AI technology to become more efficient, now has $21 billion worth of contracts, up from $17 billion this time last year. It’s a business that’s booming as companies try to cut their costs.

500 million: An AI video startup called HeyGen raised a new funding round, valuing it at $500 million. The company offers AI avatars and voice-cloning services, giving people a photorealistic online version of themselves for virtual meetings, marketing, or whatever they can dream up. And it can translate their speech into various languages. Should we test it out for a future edition? Email us here if you like the idea.

105 million: OpenAI bought a search and analytics startup called Rockset for $105 million, the biggest purchase to date for the ChatGPT maker. Rockset is an enterprise-focused company and, as such, OpenAI said it wants to use its software to improve its data offerings for business customers.

80 million: Stability AI, the beleaguered company behind the popular image generator Stable Diffusion, has secured an $80 million recapitalization with existing investors, which they hope will help set the company back on stable footing.

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