Billionaire Xavier Niel has bought the "Pavillon de Musique de la Comtesse du Barry," a historic residence near Versailles built for Louis XV’s royal mistress, adding to his growing portfolio of prestigious real estate holdings in France www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

French lawmakers voted to double its tax on large technology companies, risking a backlash from Donald Trump www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

After taking full control of German publisher Axel Springer (Politico, Business Insider), Mathias Döpfner says he’s interested in bringing another US media startup under his roof : www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The three founders of Mistral AI emerged as France’s first AI billionaires after a funding round valued the tech firm at €11.7 billion www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Dutch chipmaker ASML's €1.7 billion investment in French AI startup #Mistral has sparked hope that the company can offer a compelling alternative to American and Chinese AI. Story with Yazhou Sun : www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is in talks to raise as much as $1 billion in equity from several investors including Abu Dhabi fund MGX, according to people familiar with the matter : www.bloomberg.com/news/article... With @mhbergen.bsky.social, Dinesh Nair

🎬 Donald Trump's threat to impose a “100% tariff” on films shot outside of the US was the talk of Cannes’ Film Market, where 15,000 movie professionals jostle in a vast, underground conference space to get deals done www.bloomberg.com/news/article... #Cannes2025

🇫🇷 🎬 French producer Dimitri Rassam is the godson of Francis Ford Coppola. He is also betting tens of millions of euros on “The Accursed Kings”, an epic medieval saga destined to revive French cinema on the world scene. By @benoitberthelot.bsky.social ⤵️ www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Sex-for-work allegations are widespread at Socfin rubber plantations co-owned by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré — even after management promised to improve conditions. Read our Bloomberg investigation, reporting by @sheridanprasso.bsky.social, with Gaspard Sebag www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

My latest: sexual violence/harassment, land appropriation, labor rights violations at African plantations co-owned by French billionaire Vincent Bollore. Rubber made by this woman, "Rebecca," who faces daily sexual coercion, is imported by Michelin for US tires. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Mathias Döpfner, the German billionaire and CEO of Axel Springer, who owns Politico and Business Insider, said he is “more optimistic than ever” that the US and Europe can establish a trade alliance to take on China www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

#Amazon equipped some delivery vans in London, Amsterdam and Bologna with defibrillators, to see if drivers crisscrossing residential areas could speed up aid to heart-attack victims : www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

EU Answer to Trump May Involve Data Use by US Big Tech, France Finance Minister Says www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NEW: LibGen contains millions of pirated books and research papers, built over nearly two decades. From court documents, we know that Meta torrented a version of it to build its AI. Today, @theatlantic.com presents an analysis of the data set by @alexreisner.bsky.social. Search through it yourself:

Vincent Bolloré, the billionaire "French Murdoch", planned to retire three years ago. Instead, he's overseeing the most sweeping overhaul yet of his sprawling empire. Story with Tara Patel (gift link) : www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Today, in dystopia: The world's largest call center operator is using AI to make its staff sound less Indian by @benoitberthelot.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Teleperformance, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an AI system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims will make them more understandable www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The CEO of Publicis Arthur Sadoun said the merger of rivals Omnicom and Interpublic could be good for business, with less competition for key customers and more talent available to poach www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Arthur Mensch is the public face of French AI champion Mistral, but a behind-the-scenes powerbroker has been critical to its success Story with @mhbergen.bsky.social, editing @oliviasolon.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

European AI champion Mistral is “not for sale” and instead is working toward an initial public offering, CEO Arthur Mensch told Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A fun one for NYE - I looked at club listings going back a decade in 15 cities to show that the trend for dance events to end earlier is global - with UK cities seeing some of the biggest shifts 📉🪩 Who killed the rave? (Gift link) on.ft.com/3PhQuY7

French luxury group LVMH has acquired a historic villa in Cannes, France, for around €50 million, to showcase its brands during the city’s star-studded festivals, sources say www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

saunas, startups, "spank me with your term sheet" a dispatch from Slush in our weekend edition (🎁 link 4 u)

The Arnault family plans to turn second-tier football club Paris FC into a rival for Qatar-backed PSG, while French football has been struggling with poor finances, an underwhelming media deal and constant infighting www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

French AI startup "H", backed by Accel, Amazon, Arnault, plans to raise more funds www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New cover. December Businessweek.

What is Bluesky? You probably know the answer to that if you're here. But @kurtwagner.bsky.social breaks it down with this QuickTake explainer www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This is big: we learned 3 of the hottest AI companies — OpenAI, Google and Anthropic — are all struggling to build their next frontier AI models. Read @shiringhaffary.bsky.social @dinabass.bsky.social @julialove.bsky.social and me on what’s happening and what’s next. Gift link! t.co/dNZTbrQ4BJ

new from me and @danahull.bsky.social! In which we argue that yeah, Musk's political thing worked, and yeah, its here to stay. Get ready for four years, and prolly more, of Elon up in our politics (sorry but here's a gift link at least) www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Scoop: two Google DeepMind AI scientists are in talks to leave and form a stealth startup in Paris, sources say. "Holistic" has held discussions about a financing round that may exceed €200 million, and may be focused on building a new AI model www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Scoop: #MistralAI is in the final stages of raising roughly €450 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia and Salesforce, in a funding round that values the OpenAI rival at about $2 billion with Mark Bergen, LizetteChapman

Hundreds of OpenAI employees have threatened to resign and follow ousted leader Sam Altman to Microsoft unless the current board resigns

BNP Paribas posted weaker revenue from fixed-income trading in the third quarter, adding to evidence that European banks underperformed their Wall Street counterparts in a period of lesser turbulence in markets. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Debt and Scandal Throw Billionaire Drahi’s Empire Into Turmoil : t.co/mXOrgkLNVW