The tenth edition of VivaTech opens this Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, and runs until Saturday, June 20. Europe’s leading tech and startup event, created in 2016 by Publicis and the Les Echos group, is placing artificial intelligence at the heart of this year’s edition under the official theme “Impact, Not Illusion.” In ten years, the event has grown from 45,000 to more than 180,000 visitors.
This article is the entry point for our live coverage. We will enrich it throughout the day with announcements, talks and panel discussions from the edition. The VT News video channel, a partner of ActuIA, is available on the homepage and across the entire site.
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Key facts for the 2026 edition
- Dates: June 17 to 20, 2026 (access reserved for professionals on June 17, 18 and 19; open to the general public on Saturday June 20 via the VivaTech Festival).
- Venue: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, 1 place de la Porte de Versailles, Paris 15th arrondissement.
- Edition: the 10th, with the show having launched in 2016.
- Red thread: artificial intelligence, explored across four pillars: AI (“Impact, Not Illusion”), cybersecurity and defense, sovereignty and ethics, energy / greentech and mobility.
- Country of the year: Germany, honored during the opening ceremony.
- AI partner: India, designated the edition’s “AI Country Partner.” Narendra Modi is expected in Paris on June 18, where he is due to present India’s AI governance framework alongside Emmanuel Macron.
Opening ceremony
The 10th edition opens at 9:15 a.m. at the VivaTech Theater with “Opening Ceremony - 10 Years of Tomorrow,” in the presence of Bernard Arnault (LVMH, founding partner of the show) and Maurice Lévy, who launched VivaTech in 2016 when he was heading Publicis and became, in 2025, a personal co-shareholder. Two protocol highlights follow: “Country of the Year” at 9:45 a.m., honoring Germany with Karsten Wildberger, German Federal Minister for Digital Affairs, and Roland Lescure, French Minister of the Economy; then “United by Innovation: German Tech for a Stronger Europe” at 10:00 a.m.
Our AI picks for day 1
Among the dozens of sessions on Wednesday, June 17, here are the conferences and panel discussions most relevant for anyone following artificial intelligence. Times are in Paris time (CET), stages as listed in the program.
Top highlights
Yann LeCun: “Beyond Language Models: Building AI that Understands the World”
2:30 p.m. - 2:55 p.m., VivaTech Theater. 2018 Turing Award winner Yann LeCun is interviewed by Steven Levy, Wired’s editor-at-large. This is one of the day’s most anticipated sessions: LeCun left Meta at the end of 2025, where he was Chief AI Scientist and founder of FAIR, to become executive chairman of AMI Labs (“Advanced Machine Intelligence”), a Paris-based startup that raised just over $1 billion in seed funding in March 2026. His thesis, which he will defend on stage: large language models, trapped in text, cannot reason or plan; the path to human-level AI runs through “world models” capable of learning the laws of the physical world. A position that runs counter to the current consensus around LLMs.
Jeff Bezos: “Building the Road to Space”
10:30 a.m. - 11:15 a.m., VivaTech Theater. A major interview with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, alongside David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, in a conversation hosted by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. If the session is categorized as “AI and robotics” by the show, that is also because Bezos is presented there as co-leader of Prometheus, a “physical AI” startup he launched in late 2025 and which aims to automate the design and manufacturing of complex industrial systems. The company raised $12 billion in June 2026, one of the sector’s largest funding rounds.
“Machines That Care: Can Social Robots Redefine Human-Centered Healthcare?”
9:45 a.m. - 10:35 a.m., Red Stage. A panel on social robots in care, with Joanne Hackett (IQVIA), Dor Skuler, founder of Intuition Robotics and creator of the ElliQ companion robot for older adults, and Angelina Stoyanova Wolf, from the clinical robotics center at Odense University Hospital (Denmark). The backdrop: loneliness among seniors and the shortage of caregivers, and the question of how far empathetic AI can complement, without replacing, human care.
“From Pilot to Production: Scaling AI Agents Across the Pharma Value Chain”
9:55 a.m. - 10:25 a.m., Black Stage. How to move AI agents from pilot projects to industrial production across the pharmaceutical value chain. With Joel Belafa, cofounder of Biolevate (a Paris-based startup using AI to help draft regulatory medical documentation), a speaker from Sanofi, which has made AI a strategic priority, and David Ruau, who leads health and life sciences development for EMEA at Nvidia. The challenge: governance, reliability and compliance, the key barriers to scaling.
“From Europe to Southeast Asia: Scaling Deeptech and AI through Singapore”
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Workshop A. A workshop on scaling European deeptech and AI champions in Southeast Asia, with Pierre Fossier, Chief Scientist at Thales, Marjorie Janiewicz, Chief Revenue Officer of Mistral AI, and Chad-Son Ng, CEO of DSTA, Singapore’s defense science and technology agency. Sovereignty and defense AI are the backdrop: both Mistral and Thales have formed partnerships with Singapore.
Investing in AI: three sessions on the Purple Stage
- 9:45 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. “Beyond the Big Names: Where the Next AI Leaders Are Emerging Globally”. With Suzanne Ashman (Sovereign AI Fund, the UK public fund) and the Startup Genome teams, who are launching their “Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2026” on this occasion. The debate: where will the next global AI leaders emerge, beyond the established hubs?
- 10:55 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. “AI's Boom: Where Are Investments Going and Why?”. Nalin Patel (PitchBook) breaks down the surge in AI funding. According to the firm’s data, AI captured nearly two-thirds of the total value of venture capital investments in 2025.
- 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. “Surfing the Wave: What is the Best Strategy to Invest in AI?”. What investment strategy makes sense as valuations soar? With Hala Fadel (Eurazeo), Maya Noël, CEO of France Digitale, Nalin Patel (PitchBook) and Suzanne Ashman (Sovereign AI Fund).
Enterprise AI and productivity
- 11:20 a.m. - 11:35 a.m., Black Stage. “AI Changed the Productivity Equation. Are Leaders Ready?”. With Margaux Gregoir (Serena fund) and economist Xavier Jaravel (London School of Economics), winner of the 2021 Best Young Economist award and a specialist in innovation and productivity.
- 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Business Redefined Arena. “Beyond Coding Assistants - Why the Future of AI Is the Full SDLC”. IBM argues for AI across the entire software lifecycle (design, testing, security, deployment), beyond code assistants alone. With Bruno Aziza (IBM Software, formerly of Google Cloud) and Amélie Hocquette (IBM).
Robotics and physical AI: the demos
Throughout the morning, the Discovery Stage will feature a series of “Industry, Robotics & Advanced Manufacturing” demonstrations, a showcase for embodied AI:
- TETMET (Tom Vroemen), a French deeptech company working on architected materials produced through robotic assembly and machine vision.
- Enchanted Tools (Richard Malterre), a French startup founded by Jérôme Monceaux (co-creator of the Nao and Pepper robots), and its expressive humanoid robot Mirokaï, already tested in hospital settings.
- Emiotech (Mathéo and Philippe Houpert), a small and medium-sized company from Saône-et-Loire whose XpertVisio assisted-reality headset transmits industrial technical procedures.
- Botifull.ai (Maxime Le Berre), which is developing a conversational humanoid reception robot.
- PAL Robotics × LAAS-CNRS (with Olivier Stasse, from the Toulouse laboratory), centered on the TALOS humanoid series and dynamic walking.
- Agibot (William Shi, Europe President) and its Lingxi X2 humanoid, one of the flagships of China’s embodied AI robotics sector.
Health and AI
11:10 a.m. - 11:40 a.m., Red Stage. “Beyond Borders: Can Remote Surgery Democratize Care?”. Can remote surgery, assisted by robots and AI, democratize access to care? With Louise Agersnap (World Health Organization), Ana Rold (Diplomatic Courier) and Jitendra Sharma (Kalam Institute for Health Technology, India). In 2025, the WHO and the Society of Robotic Surgery signed an agreement to expand access to telesurgery in low- and middle-income countries.
The program is evolving continuously; we will update this selection throughout the day.
VivaTech announcements recap
This section brings together, as they come in, the most notable announcements from the show related to artificial intelligence. Check back regularly: it is updated throughout the event.
Day 1 — Wednesday, June 17
- Nvidia — Jensen Huang's GTC Paris keynote. The CEO of Nvidia delivers his keynote from the VivaTech stage, presented as a progress report on commitments made in Europe (deployment of "AI factories" and sovereign computing). Nvidia program at VivaTech.
- Île-de-France Region — AI-work Chair (16h15). Valérie Pécresse announces the creation of a chair dedicated to AI and work, led with HEC Paris, Google and Accenture. Source : Île-de-France Region.
- Île-de-France Region — R&D partnership Scaleway × Vsora (16h45). The Region announces a research and development partnership between the hosting company Scaleway and the young French semiconductor company Vsora, specialist in AI inference processors. Source : Île-de-France Region.
- CMA CGM — large-scale AI strategy. The Marseille-based group highlights an artificial intelligence now deployed on a large scale in its maritime, logistics and media activities.
In the context of the exhibition
- France — Additional 655 million euros for AI. On the eve of the opening, on June 16, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced an envelope of 655 M€ via France 2030 to accelerate the development of AI (infrastructure, calculation, research, deployments in the State and industry). Source : franceinfo.
Section updated throughout the exhibition (June 17-20). More announcements to come.