Safran in talks to buy French AI startup Preligens for €220 million

PARIS — Aerospace firm Safran is in exclusive talks to buy French defense artificial-intelligence startup Preligens, whose algorithms are used to analyze satellite data for the French and U.S. militaries, for an enterprise value of €220 million, or $236 million.

Safran said the potential deal is a “unique opportunity” to add cutting-edge AI to its product offering. The transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024, the Paris-based company said in a statement on Monday

“The proposed acquisition of Preligens will boost the adoption of AI within the group,” Safran CEO Olivier Andriès said in the statement. “It will represent a step-change for our defense and space technology businesses.”

The acquisition would ensure French control of a technology that the country’s Armed Forces Ministry has identified as crucial in the competition between global powers. The French government owns 11.2% of Safran and 18.1% of voting rights. Other bidders for Preligens included Sweden’s Hexagon and the Leonardo-Thales joint venture Telespazio, Les Echos reported in April.

The Preligens AI has been trained specifically for detecting military equipment such as armored vehicles, aircraft and ships on satellite or drone images, and France’s military intelligence uses the technology to monitor activity at strategic sites. The startup also works with NATO, the U.S., the U.K. and the EU, and last month announced a new contract with an Asia-Pacific customer for AI analysis of high volumes of government satellite images.

The startup was approached in 2020 by the CIA-sponsored investment fund In-Q-Tel, prompting French government-owned defense investment fund Definvest to participate in a €20 million funding round that same year to keep ownership fully in France. The French armament agency DGA signed a framework contract for AI analysis with Preligens in 2022 with a value of as much as €240 million over seven years.

France in March announced plans to reallocate €2 billion of funding from its 2024-2030 defense budget to artificial intelligence. Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu last week announced plans to build Europe’s most powerful classified supercomputer to take the lead in AI for defense purposes, saying France will be the European power that will devote most resources to military AI.

Preligens had sales of €28 million in 2023 and employs about 220 people, including 140 engineers in research and development. The company’s products include Xerus, which uses AI to map terrain for military purposes such as mission planning, and Robin, which provides AI-based monitoring of activity at strategic sites such as air bases. The Paris-based startup is also working with the French Navy on AI-powered analysis of underwater acoustic signals .

Adding the Preligens technology will allow Safran deploy AI-enabled digital inspection focused on flight safety and quality, the company said. Safran gets more than three-quarters of its revenue from civilian aerospace.

Safran Electronics & Defense presented an AI solution called Advanced Cognitive Engine (ACE) at the Eurosatory defense show here last week, adding AI-based target detection and tracking to the company’s optronics for land vehicles, naval sights and aircraft. The company plans to integrate ACE with its drones and robotic systems.

Preligens was founded in 2016 by Arnaud Guérin, a former executive at French government-owned nuclear-power technology firm Areva, and Renaud Allioux, previously an engineer at Airbus Defence and Space focusing on remote sensing for Earth observation.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——航空航天公司赛峰集团正与法国国防人工智能初创公司 Preligens 进行独家谈判，拟以 2.2 亿欧元（约合 2.36 亿美元）的企业价值收购该公司。Preligens 的算法被用于为法国和美国军方分析卫星数据。

赛峰集团表示，这笔潜在交易是为其产品组合增添尖端人工智能技术的“绝佳机会”。这家总部位于巴黎的公司周一在一份声明中表示，该交易尚需获得相关监管部门的批准，预计将于2024年第三季度完成。

赛峰集团首席执行官奥利维尔·安德里耶在声明中表示：“拟议收购Preligens将促进集团内部人工智能的应用。这将对我们的国防和航天技术业务产生变革性影响。”

此次收购将确保法国掌控一项被法国武装部队部认定为在全球大国竞争中至关重要的技术。法国政府持有赛峰集团11.2%的股份和18.1%的投票权。据《回声报》4月份报道，其他竞购Preligens公司的公司还包括瑞典的Hexagon公司和莱昂纳多-泰雷兹合资企业Telespazio。

Preligens人工智能系统经过专门训练，能够识别卫星或无人机图像中的装甲车、飞机和舰船等军事装备。法国军事情报部门利用这项技术监控战略要地的活动。这家初创公司还与北约、美国、英国和欧盟开展合作，并于上个月宣布与一家亚太客户签订了一份新合同，利用人工智能分析大量政府卫星图像。

这家初创公司于2020年与美国中央情报局资助的投资基金In-Q-Tel接洽，促使法国政府所有的国防投资基金Definvest同年参与了2000万欧元的融资，以确保公司完全由法国所有。2022年，法国国防装备总局（DGA）与Preligens签署了一份人工智能分析框架合同，合同金额高达2.4亿欧元，为期七年。

法国在3月份宣布计划从2024-2030年国防预算中重新分配20亿欧元用于人工智能。上周，法国武装部队部长塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努宣布计划建造欧洲最强大的机密超级计算机，以在国防人工智能领域占据领先地位。他表示，法国将成为欧洲在军事人工智能领域投入最多资源的国家。

Preligens公司2023年的销售额为2800万欧元，拥有约220名员工，其中包括140名研发工程师。该公司的产品包括Xerus和Robin。Xerus利用人工智能技术绘制地形图，用于军事任务规划等用途；Robin则提供基于人工智能的战略要地（例如空军基地）活动监控。这家总部位于巴黎的初创公司目前还与法国海军合作，开发利用人工智能技术分析水下声学信号的产品。

赛峰集团表示，引入Preligens技术后，将能够部署以飞行安全和质量为重点的人工智能数字化检测系统。赛峰集团超过四分之三的收入来自民用航空航天领域。

上周，赛峰电子与防务公司在伦敦举行的欧洲防务展上推出了一款名为“先进认知引擎”（ACE）的人工智能解决方案，该方案将基于人工智能的目标探测和跟踪功能集成到该公司用于陆地车辆、海军瞄准具和飞机的光电系统中。该公司计划将ACE系统与其无人机和机器人系统进行整合。

Preligens 由 Arnaud Guérin 和 Renaud Allioux 于 2016 年创立。Arnaud Guérin 曾是法国国有核电技术公司 Areva 的高管，而 Renaud Allioux 此前是空中客车防务与航天公司的工程师，专注于地球观测的遥感技术。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。