Founded by ex-DeepMind scientists, a Paris-based startup H has raised $220m. The focus of a company is AI models trained on large amounts of data, similar to those developed by OpenAI.

A team of Karl Tuyls, Laurent Sifre, Julien Perolat and Daan Wierstra, ex-Google DeepMind, CEO Charles Kantor of Stanford University, H just hired 25 engineers and scientists. 

The startup’s launch in Paris comes as the French capital emerges as one of Europe’s hot spots for AI. Mistral AI, which was founded by Meta and DeepMind alumni, has raised just under $500m in less than a year and is increasingly seen as one of Europe’s most promising competitors to US company OpenAI.

“By launching in Paris, H confirms France’s leadership in the field of GenAI,” said Nicolas Dufourcq, CEO of Bpifrance.