ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is opening a subsidiary in France, company creation documents dated from the end of August show. The news was first reported by French business publication L’Informé.
Dubbed OpenAI France, the subsidiary is HQ-ed in Paris and is led, for now, by OpenAI’s deputy general counsel Robert Wu and VP of finance Janine Korovesis, who are both based in San Francisco.
The documents state that OpenAI France will “commercialise, sell and distribute software products” as well carry out research and development for those products.
OpenAI did not return Sifted’s request for comment.
OpenAI’s expansion to Europe
OpenAI opened its first European office in London in 2023 before expanding to Dublin.
The news follows speculation in recent months that the US tech giant would soon grow its footprint in the French capital. At an event organised by OpenAI in Paris in May, the company’s head of developer experience Romain Huet said: “You’re going to see more of us.”
It came just after the US tech giant hired its first Paris-based recruit, Julie Lavet, to lead lobbying in Europe. She was joined a few months later by Martin Signoux, who leads AI policy for the company’s global affairs team.
Paris has become an attractive location for companies looking to recruit AI scientists and engineers — although the extent to which OpenAI’s French subsidiary will focus on R&D is still unclear.
GenAI competitors
OpenAI is best known for producing ChatGPT, the GenAI tool that took the world by storm when it launched in 2022 — and started a wave of VC enthusiasm for the technology.
The company has raised over $10bn since it launched in 2015 and is now reported to be raising at least $5bn from investors at a valuation of $150bn.
It's seeing increasing competition from companies building GenAI models, however, both in the US and Europe.
Notably, Paris-based Mistral AI has raised nearly €1bn in just over a year since it launched and is considered one of Europe’s most serious competitors in the field.
