French multinationals Thales and Atos announced on Thursday the creation of Athea, a joint venture that is going to develop a sovereign platform for big data and artificial intelligence.
Athea and Artemis
Athea will draw on the experience that both companies gained in the demonstration phase of a big data platform for the French Ministry of Armed Forces. The French defense procurement agency had already awarded the contract to both companies a month ago, which came as no surprise. The contract covers the optimization and preparation for the large-scale implementation of Artemis, as the platform is called. The new joint venture will initially serve the French Ministry of Armed Forces and other parties within the French market.
French technology
The fact that the joint venture features the two French behemoths is reason for Thales to feel proud. “This joint venture between Thales and Atos illustrates the commitment of both our companies to supporting the digital transformation of our customers by providing a secure and innovative solution based on French technology,“ Marc Darmon, executive vice president of Thales’ secure communications and information systems business unit.
According to Thales, the new joint venture constitutes a European champion.
As such, the intention is that other European countries will also make use of Athea’s expertise. This entails both public and private sector players active in defense, security and detection. According to Thales’ press release, the new joint venture constitutes a “European champion.”
Big Data platform
The joint venture will pool the companies’ investments, expertise and experience in order to quickly and efficiently respond to the demand for innovation. Athea will work in an ecosystem comprised of large companies, SMEs, start-ups and research institutions. These all specialise in big data and artificial intelligence. Together with the recently established Defense Digital Agency, the new collaboration will also be responsible for delivering secure solutions to the industrial and sovereign ecosystem.
IT company
Atos (formerly Atos Origin) is one of Europe’s largest IT companies specializing in cyber security, cloud and high performance computing. Thales (formerly Thomson) is a global electronics company, headquartered in Paris, active in aerospace, defense and information technology.
Also read about how Thales remotely controls satellites.
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