Numspot and Mistral AI, two French technology companies, announced on Tuesday a new managed artificial intelligence (AI) service built on a sovereign cloud infrastructure. This marks the first time such a service has been offered in France. The collaboration, officially revealed in a press release on September 15, aims to provide a comprehensive platform that integrates AI models, computing resources, and security into a single, easy-to-use system. This partnership is part of an effort to streamline AI deployment for businesses and organizations that may lack the technical expertise or resources to manage such systems independently. The new offering combines Mistral AI’s range of AI models and tools with Numspot’s cloud infrastructure and operational management. The three main components of the partnership include Mistral’s AI capabilities, Numspot’s cloud environment, and Numspot’s responsibility for the day-to-day management of the system. This includes distributing workloads, managing data storage, monitoring performance, ensuring security, and handling updates and traffic control. Numspot is acting as the central orchestrator, overseeing everything from initial prototypes to full-scale deployment. The integration of AI and cloud services in this way is described as a first in the French market, offering a more streamlined experience by reducing the number of vendors and components that need to be coordinated. This "key-in-hand" approach is aimed at large corporations, public institutions handling sensitive data, and smaller organizations that may not have the technical know-how or budget to manage complex AI infrastructure on their own. Both companies are working toward obtaining the SecNumCloud qualification for the new service. This certification, issued by ANSSI (France’s national cybersecurity agency), ensures that a cloud infrastructure is secure enough to host highly sensitive data and applications. Since this summer, it has been a legal requirement for government entities to use SecNumCloud-certified services. Numspot already holds this certification for its cloud infrastructure and now seeks to extend it to its AI offering. Additionally, Numspot has a HDS certification, which is necessary for securely storing medical data like patient records. Mistral AI has had a successful year, raising 3 billion euros in funding and forming a partnership with Airbus to develop AI models for aviation and defense. Numspot, which is owned by a mix of public and private French entities including Banque des Territoires, Docaposte, Dassault Systèmes, and Bouygues Telecom, emphasizes the flexibility of its platform. Its infrastructure allows users to move workloads, data, and applications seamlessly between public, private, and on-premises environments, avoiding vendor lock-in.