VivaTech at 10: How Europe’s Technology Priorities Are Changing

Europe’s largest technology and startup event, VivaTech, took place in Paris last week and highlighted how quickly Europe’s technology conversation is evolving.

The event, which has become a key date on the tech calendar in France and increasingly across Europe, marked its tenth anniversary this year. Looking back, it’s interesting to see how much has changed in that time.

Ten years ago, the event was built around entrepreneurship, unicorns and fundraising. Today, the dominant themes are AI infrastructure, deep-tech, semiconductors, quantum technologies and Europe’s ability to control critical technologies.

The question hanging over much of the discussion is no longer whether Europe can innovate, but whether it can retain and scale that innovation.

The standout developments

Sovereignty has emerged as the event’s defining political theme. As VivaTech marks ten years of French Tech’s transformation under President Macron, discussions increasingly focus on how Europe can translate startup success into technological autonomy, with France and Germany unveiling a joint initiative on European digital sovereignty.

AI remains central, but discussions increasingly focus on compute, infrastructure and industrial capacity rather than models alone. At the same time, scientists and deep-tech founders have become some of the event’s most visible figures, reflecting a broader shift towards technologies viewed as strategically important for Europe’s competitiveness and autonomy.

What this implies

This year’s VivaTech suggests Europe is entering a new phase of its technology strategy. During the Start-up Nation era, success was measured through startup creation, fundraising and unicorns. Today’s debate focuses on infrastructure, research capabilities and strategic autonomy.

The most important shift is therefore not technological but political: sovereignty is increasingly becoming the framework through which Europe discusses AI, cloud, semiconductors and digital infrastructure. The fact that VivaTech follows directly on from a G7 summit focused on trustworthy AI, digital resilience and sustainable infrastructure only reinforces how closely technology policy and industrial strategy are becoming intertwined.

One thing that stood out was how normal these discussions now feel. Conversations about sovereignty, resilience and economic security are no longer confined to policymakers. They are increasingly shaping mainstream technology discussions as well.

The growing prominence of deep-tech companies within the Next40 – France’s annual ranking of its most promising technology companies – suggests this shift is already influencing how success is measured across the French technology ecosystem.

Unicorns or sovereignty?

One of the more interesting tensions in this year’s coverage is that Europe appears to be changing how it defines success. For much of the last decade, the benchmark was Silicon Valley: more startups, more unicorns and larger funding rounds. Today’s conversation is increasingly about control over infrastructure, compute and strategic technologies.

The challenge for Europe is that the two objectives do not always align. Even as VivaTech promotes sovereignty, some of the event’s biggest attractions remain American technology leaders such as Jeff Bezos. Europe wants greater autonomy while continuing to rely on global capital, talent and technology ecosystems.

That tension runs through much of the current debate. Europe is seeking greater control over critical technologies while remaining deeply connected to the international ecosystems that continue to drive innovation, investment and growth.

What this means for comms teams

As technology becomes more closely tied to questions of competitiveness, resilience and economic security, companies have more opportunities to contribute to the conversation, but they will also need a clearer and more distinctive point of view.

The strongest contributions will come from organisations that can clearly articulate where they sit. Whether supporting AI adoption, securing critical infrastructure, managing data, providing compute capacity or strengthening digital resilience, specificity will matter more than broad statements about sovereignty or innovation.

For many organisations, the challenge is not whether they have a role to play in these discussions, but whether they are explaining that role clearly enough.

That creates an opportunity for comms teams to focus less on abstract debates and more on demonstrating a clear role in the capabilities Europe is seeking to build and retain.