Software provider Microsoft will run an artificial intelligence-focused initiative at Station F, the startup incubator set to open in Paris, France, at the end of this month, TechCrunch has reported.
Station F will operate as a startup campus with some 3,000 desks. It has already signed up corporate partners including social media company Facebook and e-commerce firm Vente-Privee.
Microsoft currently runs an accelerator elsewhere in Paris, but intends to move its operations to Station F and concentrate solely on AI technology, partnering with public research organisation Inria. The first startup to join the scheme is chatbot developer Recast.ai.
Christophe Shaw, a developer experience director at Microsoft France, told TechCrunch: “We think that we’re first going to select five or six startups that can foster an ecosystem around Inria and themselves. The idea is that we are eventually going to have a hundred startups in this club.”