Presage hires Tony Tung (former Meta) and targets San Francisco

Key Takeaways

1Tony Tung, former AI research director at Meta, becomes co-founder and chief scientist of Presage

2The startup, founded in 2024, has raised €2.3 million and counts WeLoveFounders, Kima Ventures, and ID4 among its investors

3Presage is developing Digital World Models to anticipate failures in IT infrastructure and plans to establish part of its team in San Francisco

Why it matters : This recruitment strengthens Presage's scientific strategy and supports its expansion into the American cloud market.

The French startup Presage has welcomed Tony Tung as co-founder and Chief Scientist. This arrival coincides with a project to establish a presence in San Francisco and the development of a foundational model aimed at anticipating failures in IT infrastructure.

Heading to the United States and Initial Financial Support

Presage is preparing for its expansion in the United States and plans to set up part of its team in San Francisco to strengthen partnerships and get closer to American cloud players. The startup counts WeLoveFounders, Kima Ventures, and ID4 among its investors and has raised €2.3 million since its inception. This momentum comes at a time when the sustainability of French talent returning from Silicon Valley is uncertain. In January, Doctolib hired Pierre Fite-Georgel (formerly of Niantic) and Alexandre Sahyoun (formerly of Meta), a development that Stanislas Niox-Chateau considered a very strong signal for the European tech ecosystem. The quantum startup C12 also attracted Julien Sarry after nearly eight years at Apple in Cupertino. The arrival at Presage of a profile who spent nearly a decade at Meta fits into this trend of bringing talent closer to young French companies.

A Chief Scientist to Structure the Roadmap

Tony Tung, Arthur Chevalier and Benjamin Rey of Presage

Tony Tung (left), Presage's new Chief Scientist and co-founder, with Arthur Chevalier, CTO (centre), and Benjamin Rey, CEO and co-founder (right). Photo: Presage

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Tony Tung joins Presage as co-founder and Chief Scientist, tasked with establishing the scientific and technological vision of the company. He will be responsible, among other things, for the development of Cloud-1, the foundational model on which the startup aims to build its technology. This arrival comes two years after the creation of Presage, launched in 2024 by Benjamin Rey and Arthur Chevalier. Arthur Chevalier emphasizes that Tony Tung has contributed to the emergence of models capable of learning the dynamics of complex systems and believes that few researchers combine such a scientific level with experience in managing large-scale programs.

Digital World Models to Predict Failures and Bottlenecks

Presage is designing Digital World Models intended to assimilate the functioning of an IT infrastructure, replicate its behavior, and anticipate incidents before they occur. The goal is to give companies the ability to predict a failure, identify a bottleneck, and measure the impact of a change to their infrastructure before implementation. The startup aims to create world models and bases this approach on Cloud-1, described as its foundational model.

Tony Tung's Journey from Télécom Paris to Research at Meta

A graduate engineer and PhD from Télécom Paris, Tony Tung joined Meta in 2016. He initially worked on virtual reality before moving into artificial intelligence research, where he led several teams of researchers and engineers and managed research and development programs. Before his time in Silicon Valley, he also worked in academia, notably at Kyoto University. His experience at Meta spans nearly ten years.