One of Europe’s biggest tech events celebrates its 10th anniversary in Paris from 17 to 20 June. Germany is “Country of the Year,” and the stage will feature Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AI pioneer Yann LeCun – and OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger.

For its milestone birthday, VivaTech is once again pulling out all the stops the tech world has to offer. The Porte de Versailles exhibition halls in Paris are set to become the industry’s densest gathering point, with around 15,000 startups, 4,000 investors, more than 450 speakers across four stages, and roughly 180,000 visitors expected in total. Over the four days, the focus lies above all on artificial intelligence, deeptech, cybersecurity, and energy.

Particularly relevant for the DACH region: Germany is this year’s “Country of the Year” and, according to the organisers, is sending the largest delegation in VivaTech’s history to Paris. India, meanwhile, takes the stage as “AI Country Partner” – with its own booth and a broad line-up of speakers.

Jeff Bezos opens the heavyweight line-up

The most high-profile appearance belongs to Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder and Blue Origin owner – who in 2025 additionally co-founded the AI industrial startup Prometheus, where he serves as Co-CEO – speaks on Wednesday, 17 June, on the new Theater stage (with room for more than 2,000 people). At his side: Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin and a long-time Amazon executive (Echo, Alexa, Kindle, Fire TV). The session is moderated by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who was involved, among other things, in the repair missions of the Hubble Space Telescope. The conversation is likely to centre on the new space economy – Blue Origin recently reached orbit with New Glenn and landed its booster.

Macron and Modi bring politics to the stage

A day later, on Thursday, 18 June, Emmanuel Macron takes to the Theater. The French president has positioned himself for years as one of the most vocal advocates of a sovereign, open, and public-interest-focused tech Europe – from his AI Action Summit in Paris to the global AI governance forums. His appearance fits the narrative through which France and the EU aim to assert themselves as serious AI players alongside the US and China.

Confirmed well in advance was Narendra Modi. India’s prime minister, whose visit falls within the Franco-Indian Year of Innovation, is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the international debate on “responsible” AI, and introduced his own governance approach from the perspective of the Global South with the MANAV framework.

AI prominence: Yann LeCun and an Austrian

From the AI engine room comes Yann LeCun, one of the fathers of deep learning. LeCun, who left Meta after years as Chief AI Scientist, now appears with his new venture AMI Labs as well as in his role as a professor at NYU – his appearance is one of the highlights for the research community.

Exciting for the local audience: an Austrian is on the Theater stage as well. Peter Steinberger – known in the developer scene as “steipete,” founder of PSPDFKit and creator of the viral open-source project OpenClaw – has been part of the Codex team at OpenAI since early 2026. He shares the stage on 18 June with Thibault Sottiaux, who heads Product & Platform at OpenAI. A piquant subtext: Steinberger recently stated publicly that he is moving to the United States – in his view, too much regulation is stifling AI development in Europe. Precisely the debate that hangs over the entire VivaTech anniversary edition.

And who else? From the LVMH boss to Germany’s digital minister

The rest of the guest list reads like a cross-section of the global economy: Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), Roland Busch (Siemens), Joe Tsai (Alibaba), Christophe Fouquet (ASML), Elizabeth Stone (Netflix), Octave Klaba (OVHcloud), and Glenn Fogel (Booking.com) are all part of it, as are EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen and Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger. VivaTech also highlights its gender-balanced stage line-up, with women making up around 50 percent of speakers.

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