CMA CGM chairman Rodolphe Saadé is making waves in the business world by investing heavily in ventures outside of the company’s core container shipping segment. This includes building a media division and an air cargo business, as well as a foray into artificial intelligence.

One of Saadé’s latest ventures is Kyutai, an AI open science lab that he founded alongside Eric Schmidt and Xavier Niel. The non-profit laboratory is dedicated to open research in AI and aims to tackle the main challenges of modern AI. Kyutai will use the computing power made available by Scaleway, part of Niel’s tech empire, to develop large multimodal models and invent new algorithms to enhance their capacities, reliability, and efficiency.

Kyutai has received nearly EUR300m in investments so far and is committed to democratizing AI and sharing its advances with the entire AI ecosystem. Saadé expressed his desire for the younger generation to benefit from the opportunities of AI through Kyutai, ensuring researchers have the resources they need to create and invent the world of tomorrow.

The CMA CGM Group’s involvement in AI research is driven by a desire to place France and the rest of Europe at the forefront of artificial intelligence research, creating a dynamic and innovative ecosystem to keep businesses competitive. Saadé emphasized that joining forces is the best way to prepare for the future in the realm of AI.