“Then at the other extreme, [the left-wing New Popular Front] have been very vocal about all the tax measures they want to bring back, it looks like we’re going back to the pre-Macron era,” Varza said. She pointed to France in 2012 “les doves” (or “fools”) movementA campaign by angry internet entrepreneurs protesting against plans by Socialist President François Hollande to sharply raise taxes on founders.
Maya Noël, CEO of France Digitale, an industry group for startups, is worried not only about France’s ability to attract foreign talent but also about how attractive it will be to the next government. according to foreign investors. In February, Google said it would open a new AI center in Paris where 300 researchers and engineers will work. Three months later, Microsoft also announced Record $4 billion investment in French AI infrastructure. Meta has AI Research Lab in Paris since 2015. Today, France is attractive to foreign investors, she said. “And we need them.” Neither Google nor Meta responded to WIRED’s request for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.
The vote will not oust Macron himself—a presidential election is not scheduled until 2027—but the election results could significantly reshape the lower house of the French National Assembly, the National Assembly, and install a new leader. Generals from far-right or left-wing coalitions come to power. This will push the government into instability, increasing the risk of deadlock. In the past 60 years, only three times has a president been forced to govern with a prime minister from the opposing party, an arrangement known as “coexistence” in France.
No AI startup has benefited more from the Macron era than Mistral, which counts Cédric O, a former digital minister in Macron’s government, as one of its co-founders. Mistral has not commented publicly on the choice facing France at the polls. The company’s latest to share its views was Cédric O’s decision to repost businessman Gilles Babinet’s X post last week saying: “I hate the far right but the economic program of the left does strange”. When WIRED asked Mistral about the repost, the company said O was not a spokesperson and declined to comment.
Babinet, a member of the government Artificial Intelligence Commissionsaid he had heard of colleagues considering leaving France. “Some programmers I know from Senegal, from Morocco, are already planning their next move,” he said, adding that people had also contacted him for help renewing their visas early in case it became more difficult under the far-right government.
While other industries are quietly rushing to support the far right as a preferable alternative to the left-wing coalition, according to report, Babinet took down the threat from the New Popular Front. “It is clear that they apply very outdated economic rules and therefore they are completely ignorant of the new economy,” he said. But after speaking with New Popular Front members, he said the far-left was in the minority in the coalition. “Most of these people are Social Democrats, and so, from their experience, they know that when François Hollande came to power, he tried to raise taxes on technology, but it was pathetic failure.”
There has been a sense of damage control, as the industry tries to reassure outsiders that everything will be fine. Babinet points to other moments of political turmoil that industries have weathered. “Ultimately, Brexit is not a nightmare for the UK tech scene,” he said. The UK remains the favored place to launch a generative AI startup, according to Accel report.
Stanislas Polu, an OpenAI alumnus who launched the French AI startup Dust last year, agrees that the industry has enough momentum to overcome any obstacles. “Some of the outcomes could be a little bit bleak,” he said, adding that he expects personal finances to take a hit. “It’s always a little more complicated to navigate in a more volatile environment. I guess we’re hoping that more moderate people will run the country. I think that’s all we can hope for.”
