Thales, a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems, and Atos, a French multinational information technology service and consulting company, agreed to form Athea, a joint venture that will develop a sovereign big data and artificial intelligence platform for public and private sector players in the defence, intelligence and internal state security communities. Financial terms were not disclosed. “This joint venture between Thales and Atos illustrates the commitment of both our companies to supporting the digital transformation of our customers by providing a secure and innovative solution based on French technology to process huge volumes of heterogeneous data. Together, we will capitalise on our respective areas of expertise to provide best-in-class big data and artificial intelligence solutions,” Marc Darmon, Thales Executive Vice President, Secure Communications and Information Systems.