Historical Context: From Silk to Silicon

Lyon's transformation into a tech hub didn't happen overnight. The city's industrial heritage laid crucial groundwork for its digital future. The same precision that once made Lyon's silk weavers famous now drives its software engineers. The collaborative spirit of the canuts (silk workers) lives on in the city's thriving developer communities.

The turning point came in the 1980s when Infogrames (later Atari) chose Lyon as its headquarters. This wasn't a random decision—Lyon offered a unique combination of technical universities, creative talent from its renowned film and animation schools, and significantly lower costs than Paris. As Bruno Bonnell, Infogrames' co-founder, recalls: "Lyon had everything we needed: engineers who could code, artists who could dream, and a city government that understood the future was digital."

The success of Infogrames created a gravitational pull. Talent stayed in the city instead of departing for Paris. Other studios followed. By the early 2000s, Lyon had critical mass in gaming, which naturally expanded into broader software development.