Clément Delangue
Co-founder and CEO, Hugging Face
Builder
Why they matterBuilt Hugging Face, the main hub for open AI models. Nvidia agreed to buy it for $12.9B in Sep 2026.
Sep 2026: Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face
Who’s shaping AI in France
The builders, researchers, policymakers, investors, explainers and critics moving AI forward in France. Every entry links to a source and to the moments on our timeline.
- People
- 6
- Global leaders from here
- 2
- Timeline events
- 1
- Last checked
- 2 Oct 2026
Gaël Varoquaux
Research Director, Inria. Co-founder, Probabl
Researcher
Why they matterA core developer of scikit-learn, the open machine learning library behind much applied ML.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Anne Le Hénanff
Minister Delegate for AI and Digital Affairs
Policymaker
Why they matterFrance's government minister for AI and digital policy since Feb 2026.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Antoine Moyroud
Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Paris
Investor
Why they matterPart of Lightspeed's early investment in Mistral AI. Also backs CuspAI.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
David Louapre
Creator, Science Étonnante. Works at Hugging Face
Explainer
Why they matterPhysicist whose French YouTube channel explains how AI models work.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Lê Nguyên Hoang
Executive Director, Tournesol
Critic & watchdog
Why they matterArgues for strict limits on what AI agents can access and for firm AI Act enforcement.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Global leaders from France
Arthur Mensch
Co-founder and CEO, Mistral AI
Builder
Why they matterCo-founded Mistral in 2023. A Sep 2025 round led by ASML valued it at €12B.
Sep 2025: ASML-led round values Mistral at €12B
Yann LeCun
Executive Chairman, AMI Labs
Researcher
Why they matterLeft Meta to start AMI Labs, which raised $1.03B in Mar 2026 to build world models.
Mar 2026: AMI Labs raises $1.03B
On the AIooze timeline