IBM to Add 1,800 Blockchain and AI Jobs in France
IBM has announced that it would add about 1,800 staff to its employee list in France. The new employees will reportedly work in the fields of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cloud computing.
The announcement was made before a meeting between IBM’s top executives and French President Emmanuel Macron. Besides IBM, the French leader on Wednesday met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Intel’s Brian Krzanich, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and other big names of the tech industry as well.
According to a report carried by Reuters citing IBM, the company is ready to hire about 1,400 workers in France to operate with projects related to blockchain, cloud computing, and the internet of things (loT). However, IBM’s CEO Virginia Rometty informed the French media agency Le Monde that the figure is about 1,800. The number is not that symbolic considering the fact that IBM has about 380,000 employees across the world. The key highlight is that the new hires will be dedicated to the blockchain and similar cutting-edge technologies.
The move is also important given that IBM has cut its number of employees in France during recent years.
“In the next two years, we will hire 1,800 people in France at IBM. In January, we announced a project to recruit 400 people for research. These jobs will relate to artificial intelligence (AI), block chain, and the Internet of Things. We want to make France a center of excellence dedicated to artificial intelligence,” Rometty told Le Monde.
“IBM collaborates with major clients such as Crédit Mutuel, Orange Bank, Generali, SNCF or LVMH. These examples show that France is doing a good job at being the driving force in AI,” she added.
On Wednesday, Rometty and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had one-on-one meetings with Macron, after the start of the “Tech for Good” workshops that duo attended along with top executives of other tech companies.
Just this past week, it was revealed that IBM was partnering with the environmental tech startup Veridum Labs to develop a carbon credit-based token to be traded on the stellar blockchain.
