France’s Bloomberg? Billionaire tech mogul dreams of becoming Paris mayor

Some billionaires dream of spending their fortunes on yachts or private islands. Not Xavier Niel.

The French telecommunications and technology mogul hopes to become the next mayor of Paris, he revealed in a new memoir.

“It would put me in contact with the French,” Niel, who has a net worth of around €10 billion, told radio station FranceInter on Tuesday.

In the book, which was written with former deputy mayor of Paris Jean-Louis Missika and billed by publisher Flammarion as a “conversation between friends” — the billionaire said being mayor would be “great.”

Niel made his name — and fortune — in the telecoms world, launching France’s first internet provider in 1993. The 57-year-old, who was born in the Parisian suburb of Maisons-Alfort, went on to found the French telecommunications company Iliad, the parent company of Free, one of the biggest French internet providers.

He is also a major investor in French media: a co-owner of Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, and an investor in Telegram, the popular messaging app whose founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris at the end of August. In September, he also joined the board of the Chinese group ByteDance, which owns the social platform TikTok.

In terms of how he would govern, Niel said he has ideas about Grand Paris, a public works project meant to better connect the French capital to the regions on its outskirts.

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to do better than the others, but I’d love to use my money to help my city, like [Mike] Bloomberg, the businessman who became mayor of New York, did,” he said.

The next mayoral race for the French capital is scheduled for 2026. Current mayor Anne Hidalgo is likely to face off against Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who has already announced plans to run.

However, it appears Niel is philosophical about the reality of his chances, describing the idea as “a dream that I can cherish.”

For the moment, someone of a younger generation would probably be a better fit, he said in the book: “We will need a young, different mayor, the opposite of what I represent.”