CMA CGM Announces Launch of AI Open Science Lab with Eric Schmidt

Rodolphe Saadé, chairman of CMA CGM, is investing in ventures outside the company’s core container shipping segment following a record-breaking annual profit last year. One such venture is building a media division and an air cargo business, as well as a foray into artificial intelligence.

Saadé has joined forces with Eric Schmidt and Xavier Niel to unveil Kyutai, an AI open science lab. The non-profit laboratory aims to tackle the main challenges of modern AI by developing large multimodal models and inventing new algorithms to enhance their capacities, reliability, and efficiency. Kyutai will use the computing power made available by Scaleway, part of Niel’s tech empire, which has the highest-performance computing power for AI applications deployed in Europe.

Kyutai has received nearly €300m in investments so far and is committed to democratizing AI by sharing its advances with the entire AI ecosystem. The venture aims to benefit researchers from around the world and encourage innovation in this rapidly growing field. Saadé expressed his desire for young people to have access to these opportunities through Kyutai and emphasized that joining forces is crucial in preparing for the future of artificial intelligence research.