Faced with the rise of physical AI and the rise of Asian ecosystems, France must focus on international cooperation capable of accelerating its reindustrialization.
French successes in aeronautics, energy, transport and industrial design have long shown what can be accomplished when technical excellence is supported by a strong national ambition. Few symbols embody this spirit better than Concorde, an emblematic project of trust, international cooperation and surpassing technological limits.
The next industrial advantage will be in physical AI
Today, a new frontier is emerging. The industrial advantage of tomorrow will no longer come from advances made separately in software and equipment, but from the integration of intelligence within physical systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from screens to machines, sensors and production environments. This development, often referred to as “physical AI” or “industrial AI”, is already transforming manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and mobility. Beyond technology itself, it is reshaping the global balance of power. A question then arises: where will this new industrial capacity be built?
France displays strong ambitions in this area. France 2030 and recent investment commitments reflect a clear desire to strengthen the country’s industrial policy and its technological sovereignty. Historical players like Schneider Electric, Dassault or Valeo, alongside a new generation of robotics companies such as Wandercraft or Enchanted Tools, show that the foundations of French innovation remain solid.
But ambition is not enough. The challenge is above all structural. The share of the manufacturing industry in the economy has been declining for several decades, making reindustrialization a challenge of execution as much as of strategy. At the same time, Asia, and particularly China, has built industrial ecosystems of remarkable density, where robotics, advanced materials, sensors and production engineering coexist in close proximity. Some regions now operate as veritable open-air laboratories, where research, prototyping and large-scale production interact continuously. In physical AI, this proximity between laboratory and factory constitutes a decisive advantage.
Access global industrial ecosystems without losing sovereignty
However, for European companies, directly accessing these ecosystems remains complex. Regulatory divergences, geopolitical tensions and concerns related to intellectual property weigh more and more in strategic choices. As a result, some of the world’s most advanced capabilities in industrial AI are developing in environments perceived to be distant, both operationally and politically.
The question is therefore no longer whether France should collaborate internationally, but how. The challenge is to access global innovation networks while maintaining control of intellectual property, governance and long-term strategy.
This is precisely the role of trusted interfaces: places where collaboration is part of a familiar legal framework, where applied research can be transformed into deployable solutions, and where the value created can be repatriated and then developed on a European scale. Spaces that allow ideas, talents and industrial know-how to circulate without compromising national priorities or strategic business assets.
Hong Kong, a bridge between European innovation and Asian industrial capabilities
Hong Kong has long played this role. At the crossroads of international markets and Asian industrial networks, the city brings together world-class universities, a robust legal framework and intellectual property protection aligned with international standards, as well as direct access to the advanced production capacities of southern China. It also has a complete ecosystem dedicated to innovation and AI, with specialized data centers, high-performance computing capabilities and very high-speed networks enabling the training, deployment and continuous optimization of AI models.
For European companies, Hong Kong thus offers an environment particularly suited to collaborating with different ecosystems while remaining aligned with the standards and requirements of their home markets.
In recent years, several French institutions and companies have embarked on this path. End of 2025, a consortium bringing together Schneider Electric, Veolia, Bouygues-Dragages and Saint-Gobain has signed an agreement with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to explore new approaches to smart industry and energy technologies within the framework of a “living lab” installed on the university campus. At the same period, Prophecya French pioneer in neuromorphic vision sensors for robotics, has opened an innovation center in Hong Kong to collaborate more closely with players in the region.
In terms of research, the National Research Agency (ANR) and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong jointly fund projects in robotics, microelectronics and advanced materials. For his part, La French Tech Hong Kong–Shenzhen offers French start-ups a platform for access to regional industrial ecosystems while allowing them to retain their strategic R&D activities and intellectual property within a familiar governance framework. Together, these initiatives illustrate the emergence of a model of selective, structured and pragmatic cooperation.
Technological sovereignty also requires cooperation
The lesson is clear. In physical AI, the dividing line no longer runs between European innovation and Asian innovation, but between ecosystems capable of connecting and those which remain isolated. The countries that succeed will be those that can combine the excellence of their national research with intelligent access to global industrial capabilities.
France has considerable assets: leading research, talented entrepreneurs and a strong political will to remain a major player in new generation industrial technologies, rather than a simple buyer. The challenge now consists of making international collaborations a lever serving this ambition, rather than a diluting factor.
If Concorde yesterday symbolized what French engineering and international cooperation could accomplish in aeronautics, then the next great advance in the industry augmented by artificial intelligence could arise from a comparable dynamic. I would like to see more partnerships emerge between French innovators and Asian players, based on mutual respect, clear governance and knowledge sharing. When carried out under the right conditions, this cooperation does not weaken sovereignty. It strengthens it, by allowing ambitions to change scale and innovations to be enriched through contact with other ecosystems.
