Prime Minister Michel Barnier didn’t have to look far to find his head of technology issues: he appointed Clara Chappaz, previously director of the French Tech Mission, responsible for supporting the French start-up ecosystem. The title of the position has changed: she has been appointed Secretary of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, a sign of the importance given to “AI”. Her supervisory ministry has also been changed: while her previous reporting ministry was Bercy, this portfolio will now report to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Mr. Barnier has therefore reconnected with a specialist in the sector, like the first two secretaries of state appointed after Mr. Macron’s election in 2017, on the theme of the “start-up nation”: Mounir Mahjoubi and Cédric O. They were succeeded by two officials from the Modem, a party allied with the majority: Jean-Noël Barrot, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the furtive Marina Ferrari who only remained in her post for seven months.
In recent months, the French tech ecosystem has been wondering about the future and worrying about a possible decline in digital issues on the agenda of the French executive, but also at the European level, while the very active Thierry Breton has just resigned from his post as European Commissioner for the internal market and digital technology.
Clara Chappaz has the advantage of having worked in several digital companies in positions of responsibility, at Vestiaire Collective and then at Zalora, an Asian fashion e-commerce platform. Arriving in 2021 at the head of the French Tech Mission, responsible for supporting young French companies, she witnessed the glory days of French Tech, with a record fundraising in 2022 (13.5 billion euros).
Voluntary policy
It has also subsequently witnessed a sudden drying up of funding and a recent shift towards prioritising start-ups resulting from basic research, for example to promote reindustrialisation in nuclear power or semiconductors, or to develop AI.
The intention today seems to be to continue the proactive policy in favor of AI led by Emmanuel Macron since 2017, with the Villani plan, and more particularly in the last two years. Paris has openly sought to promote the emergence of “French champions” and the Parisian AI scene, embodied by start-ups such as Mistral, LightOn, Dust, H, Hugging Face or Photoroom. This attitude is not without generating friction, as France has been accused of opposing the regulation of AI in the European AI Act text, particularly on copyright. The implementation of the text is still under debate in Brussels.
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