> Why invest in a Paris-based accelerator for AI, considering how hostile the government is towards AI and keen on regulating it into obscurity?

Do you have any example of this? In particular any example that goes beyond "saying that companies can't use as much AI as they want all the time without restriction no matter the impact on people"?

Because "intent on regulating AI into obscurity" isn't how I'd describe the French government.

France and Germany drive EU politics. If the politicians there are benefitting from AI then they're less likely to regulate it out of existance. The EU creates policy that the rest of the west tends to move towards, so if you can stop the slide there, you can ultimately slow it everywhere.