“Our room for maneuver is low”: French companies are worried about their dependence on American AI

“It’s really worrying,” sighs Maya Noël, the former general director of France Digitale, an association that brings together start-ups and investment funds. Every day, French entrepreneurs realize a little more about their growing vulnerability to American tech heavyweights and what it risks costing them.

The story of the Twenga price comparator had already left its mark. The great rise of this French company, which had launched successfully in several European countries, was stopped dead when Google launched its own comparator and decided, to favor it, to make its competitors almost invisible on the search engine. Last December, after ten years of proceedings, the American was ordered to pay more than 50 million euros to Twenga for anti-competitive practices. But the damage was done.

The threat today looms over data storage. The example of this young French company which proudly claims to preserve…