Scientists from Google DeepMind are in discussions to depart and establish their own artificial intelligence startup.

According to individuals familiar with the discussions, two scientists from Google DeepMind, the artificial intelligence division of Alphabet Inc., have been in talks with investors regarding the establishment of an AI startup in Paris.

The team has been in talks with potential investors for a funding round that could top 200 million euros ($220 million) — a large sum even for the booming AI industry, the people said. Laurent Sifre, who has worked as a scientist at DeepMind, is currently in talks to start a company known as Holistic with another DeepMind scientist, Karl Tuyls, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss private information. They said the project might focus on building a new AI model.

Sifre and Tuyls did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A DeepMind representative declined to comment on launch plans. The two have announced they are leaving the company, said a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Sifre co-authored the 2016 DeepMind study on the Go website. It’s a landmark work that showed a computer system could beat the masters of the ancient game for the first time, sparking an international frenzy about artificial intelligence. Tuyls has worked in research on game theory and multi-action reinforcement learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that studies interactions between autonomous agents, often through video games.

Both Sifre and Tuyls are widely regarded as leaders in their field, and the exceptionally large funding round under discussion is further evidence of strong investor interest in the technology. This is especially true in France, where venture capitalists and businessmen have poured funds into startups emerging from the universities of Paris and the artificial intelligence centers of Silicon Valley companies.

Mistral AI, an OpenAI competitor whose CEO also worked at DeepMind, was founded in early 2023 and had raised two sizeable rounds by the end of the year to earn a valuation of around $2 billion. Kyutai, a non-profit artificial intelligence research laboratory, was founded in November with an initial funding of 300 million euros.

The new French startup under discussion is different from Holistic AI, a London-based enterprise software business.

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