CES in Las Vegas: when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella comes to the French Tech booth

Some entrepreneurs from the French delegation at the high-tech exhibition in Las Vegas still find it hard to believe. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella walked into a crowd of French tech booths in a small group Tuesday afternoon. In the absence of a minister or secretary of state due to personnel changes, 150 French startups attended the parade of one of the world’s most powerful leaders. Framework? The alleys of Eureka Park, a crossroads of young shoots with sometimes incredible inventions, located in a large hotel on the Strip, a long casino boulevard.

This 2024 edition of artificial intelligence would not be complete without recognition from an executive at Microsoft, the main investor in the fledgling startup OpenAI behind the chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT. First he was a surprise guest at a conference as part of the exhibition, and then he headed to the corner reserved for aspiring businessmen.

The secret was kept until the end. “Early in the morning, a Microsoft employee came to us and offered to greet the manager, we obviously agreed because everyone is welcome,” says Richard Malter, director of communications at robotics startup Enchanted Tools. “We didn’t expect to see the arrival of the CEO of an IT giant at all,” he continues to be surprised. At 4:00 p.m., a slender manager of Indian origin arrives for a casual chat with Jérôme Monceau, the CEO of the young company. The discussion focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into the robot Mirki and whether it needs the Internet in the form of simple servers to interact with humans.

Satya Nadella continued his wanderings down other aisles to discover innovations made in France. “He was able to see that ChatGPT, in which he had invested a lot of money, was being used well by companies around the world,” smiles the head of an artificial intelligence company in northern France. After this visit to French Tech, the big boss continued his journey to other foreign delegations to take the pulse of the high-tech planet.