The French billionaire joins Bytedance’s board of directors. He has been involved in AI for several months and is familiar with the digital regulatory environment in Europe.
New cap for Xavier Niel. The founder of Free, who will perform on September 18 at the Olympia in a conference explaining « How to become a billionaire »is hyperactive this back to school. According to the American media The Informationhe recently joined the board of directors of the Chinese giant Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok. Without, however, taking a share of the company’s capital.
An arrival in the midst of a regulatory storm, particularly across the Atlantic, where the social network is threatened by a ban on operating if it does not cut all its ties with its country of origin. In Europe, the company is regularly in the sights of Brussels and Paris, where it was the subject of a parliamentary commission of inquiry in 2023.
Advice and inspiration
Asked by The Figarothe billionaire did not give further details on the reasons for this involvement and his future role. In the Chinese press, Bytedance representatives welcomed the « advice » and of the« inspiration » brought by the entrepreneur to the future. Omnipresent on the AI front in recent months with his subsidiary, Scaleway, and the AI research laboratory founded in Paris, Kyutai, Xavier Niel also has a solid knowledge of the digital regulatory environment in Europe to assert.
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This is not the businessman’s first foray into corporate boards. The entrepreneur is already a member of the boards of the American fund KKR, the British operator Vodafone and the commercial real estate giant Unibail Rodamco Westfield, in which he is a shareholder. On the board of Bytedance, Xavier Niel will replace Philippe Lafond, the founder of the investment fund Coatue Management.
