Paris AI Voice Startup Gradium Nabs $100M Seed Round with Nvidia on Board

Gradium, a Paris-based company building next-generation voice AI models, has closed a $100 million seed round after reopening its fundraising to new backers—including chip giant Nvidia. The startup announced the milestone Thursday, marking one of the largest seed rounds in the European AI space.

The fresh capital will help Gradium open a Bay Area office and recruit top talent in Silicon Valley, a move the company says strengthens its foothold in the world’s leading AI hub. While Paris is already a major center for AI innovation, Gradium’s expansion signals the pull of being close to giants like Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI. The company originally launched from stealth in December with $70 million from investors including FirstMark Capital, Eurazeo, DST Global Partners, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel.

Gradium was spun out of Kyutai, a French AI lab backed by Niel, and co-founded by Neil Zeghidour—a researcher with stints at Google Brain, DeepMind, and Facebook. The startup focuses on ultra-low-latency audio models that let AI voices respond almost instantly, eliminating the awkward pauses common in many AI agents. Despite stiff competition from rivals like ElevenLabs, which hit an $11 billion valuation in February, and Google’s Gemini, Gradium has already landed major clients, including French automaker Renault.