The non-profit laboratory Kyutai was founded jointly by the iliad Group, the CMA CGM Group and Schmidt Futures. Each of the iliad Group and the CMA CGM Group have contributed $110 million to fund the research laboratory, while Schmidt Futures has also joined as a co-founder, forming a strong partnership based on a shared commitment to the project.
Kyutai is a non-profit laboratory dedicated to open research in artificial intelligence (AI). Its objective is to tackle the main challenges of modern AI, particularly by developing large multimodal models and inventing new algorithms to enhance their capacities, reliability, and efficiency. The laboratory has already assembled a team of researchers with academic and business backgrounds.
“Through this new investment in artificial intelligence, I would like the younger generation to benefit from all the opportunities that this technology has to offer. Thanks to Kyutai, researchers will have all the resources they need to create and invent the world of tomorrow. It’s a venture that will bring together the world’s best experts to address the challenges of AI,” said Rodolphe Saadé, President, and CEO of the CMA CGM Group.
Xavier Niel, Chairman, and Founder of the iliad Group, commented that “Europe’s got everything it takes to win the AI race. French researchers are known as being the best in the world. We have all the computing power that’s needed. And we have a hyper-dynamic AI ecosystem. By creating an AI open research lab here in Paris, we’re stepping up the pace even further. Kyutai will give us ultra high-performing, reliable AI models, which the entire European AI ecosystem will be able to benefit from.”
“To achieve our ambitions, we’re building an exceptional research team and are immersing ourselves in the major challenges of modern AI. We’re looking forward to sharing with the community the first results of our open research,” added Patrick Pérez, CEO of Kyutai.