French AI Envoy Anne Bouverot said Bengaluru has the potential to become the next Silicon Valley. The southern city is widely known for its thriving startup ecosystem and is home to several tech and financial giants.
In an interview with the Hindustan Times, when asked where globally the new Silicon Valley could emerge apart from China, Bouverot replied: “Well, I definitely think Bangalore could be it.”
She also named several other nations and regions that could potentially emerge as the new Silicon Valley, including France, Germany, Switzerland and Nairobi, Kenya, suggesting each of these places has a growing tech ecosystem and strong potential for innovation.
Anne Bouverot is French President Emmanuel Macron’s Special Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. It organized the previous Global AI Summit – The AI Action Summit – in Paris in 2025. This year, France passed the Global AI Summit baton to India, which witnessed widespread interest from leaders and people around the world.
Why is Bengaluru known as a startup and innovation hub?
Technology and AI companies are increasingly choosing Bengaluru as a strategic base as it offers a wide range of skilled developers and a rapidly growing market demand. A recent notable example is American research firm Anthropic, which has officially opened its first Indian office in Bengaluru as part of its global expansion.
In an interview with HT, Dev Khare, an India-based software and digital startup investor and partner at Lightspeed, earlier shared his thoughts on this emerging AI landscape, especially in Bengaluru.
He pointed out that while Silicon Valley is focused on creating AI tools for companies and their employees, Bengaluru is developing AI that is disrupting India’s own service industries, including IT services, BPO, consulting and call centers.
At the same time, Indian startups are creating AI for 1.4 billion consumers, solving everyday problems that the Valley doesn’t address, and noticing how companies in India are focused on building practical and scalable technologies.
“Bengaluru is building AI that cannibalizes India’s own services empire — BPO, IT services, consultants, call centers — plus AI for the 1.4 billion consumers that Valley isn’t building for,” he said during the interview.
AI Summit – What is it?
The Global AI Summit will be held in India from February 16 to 20, 2026. The event is expected to bring together leaders from various spheres, including heads of state, senior ministers, global technology executives, researchers and startup founders.
The event is set to position India as a key voice in shaping the next phase of AI development. Several global leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Lula da Silva, are set to attend the summit on the impact of artificial intelligence at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang backed out of the event at the last minute.