24% of French unicorns have moved their headquarters across the Atlantic. Innovation, AI, market size, IPO, regulation… There are multiple reasons for this choice.
America, America, they want to have it… and they are packing their bags. According to a study published in March 2026 by the investment company Mighty Nine, nine French tech unicorns have transferred their headquarters to the United States. This represents 24% of start-up French companies valued at at least one billion dollars, the highest percentage in Europe. Here is the list of the nine companies in question: Jellysmack, 360Learning, Front, Loft Orbital, Algolia, Poolside AI, Dataiku, Hugging Face and Aircall.
Asked about the motivations which led it to settle in the United States, the latter refuses the qualification of an American company: “Our head office is in New York but we remain a French company which has decided to attack the American market. We must not only focus on our head office. Half of our turnover is achieved in Europe. We are rather a Franco-American company”, indicates Fred Viet, chief revenue officer of Aircall.
“It’s the largest market in the world. To become a global player in SaaS, the United States is essential. American companies innovate very quickly. We observe how early adopters innovate, and we seek to import these innovations to Europe before the others”, continues the manager. “The American market is slightly less constrained from a regulatory perspective and access to talent is simpler,” he adds.
AI wave and springboard for IPO
It would therefore be to be at the heart of the action and fully live the American dream that unicorns like Aircall change their nationality, at least on paper. “They are quite simply entrepreneurs who ask themselves a simple question: where is my market and where are my customers? It’s business pragmatism,” analyzes Olivier Martret, partner at Serena. Furthermore, the wave of artificial intelligence has also strengthened the attractiveness of the United States: “If you build a company around AI solutions, it is preferable to evolve in an ecosystem that nourishes you on a daily basis and to find yourself at the heart of the dynamics”. This was already the case before, but with AI, the United States is establishing itself more than ever as “the place to be”.
Market size, innovation, AI… These are certainly good reasons, but why choose to change your head office rather than being content with “simple” internationalization by setting up a small team on site? Two arguments seem to stand out. “The first sales person in the company, its first representative, is its CEO. This is why the headquarters of the structure can move to the United States with its CEO but a good part of the teams remain in France. Some unicorns choose this hybrid formula to have the best of both worlds,” explains Olivier Martret.
Moving to better embody, but also to prepare for a possible IPO. Because according to our interlocutors, it seems easier to consider an IPO in the United States if we are already considered an American company: “Taking this parameter into account, it seems difficult to imagine that we would repatriate our head office to France,” confides Fred Viet.
What about sovereignty?
And sovereignty in all this? A term that has become central in the discourse of French start-ups in recent years, it does not seem to carry much weight in the face of business imperatives. “It must not go against business issues. As an investor, we prefer that our companies remain French or European, but we will never go against their economic interests. If there are good reasons to settle in the United States, we will support them”, indicates Olivier Martret.
Finally, it should be noted that the role of certain incubators should not slow down this exodus in the years to come. “Some, like Y Combinator or The Bridge, strongly encourage a presence in the United States. For its part, Hexa opened a house in San Francisco to position itself at the heart of AI. These structures appreciate that their start-ups are connected to the American market.” The rush to the West therefore does not seem ready to stop.
