French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for 109 billion euro ($112.5 billion) investment in artificial intelligence in France over the coming years as the country aims to position itself as the European leader in emerging technology, boosted by a multibillion deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced last week.
Macron touted the new funding ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris, which starts on Monday, featuring discussions between world leaders and business executives on how to safely embrace artificial intelligence.
Speaking to public broadcaster France 2 on Sunday ahead of the summit, Macron emphasized the need for international cooperation and regulation.
"This is a new era of progress," Macron said, stressing that AI should serve as an "assistant" rather than replace human jobs.
The investment comes as France seeks to keep pace with global AI developments, including the U.S. initiative "Stargate," for which U.S. President Donald Trump pledged $500 billion.
"I can tell you this evening, Europe is going to speed up, France is going to speed up. And for us, France, we’re announcing at tomorrow’s summit 109 billion euros of investment in artificial intelligence over the next few years," Macron said in a TV interview.
"What’s that? It’s exactly the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate – $500 billion – it’s the same ratio."
The financing is said to include plans by Canadian investment firm Brookfield to invest 20 billion euros in AI projects in France and financing from the UAE which could hit 50 billion euros in the years ahead, Macron's office said.
The Elysee Palace said the UAE investment would include financing for a 1 gigawatt (GW) data center. The La Tribune de Dimanche newspaper reported that the bulk of Brookfield's investment would go toward a data center.
The AI summit, co-chaired with India, set for Feb. 10-11 in Paris, will bring together world leaders, tech executives, and policymakers to discuss ethical, political, and economic challenges surrounding AI.
It will be the third summit organized worldwide in this field, following the initial one in the U.K. and the one held in South Korea last year.
Macron has announced that up to 100,000 young professionals would be trained in AI-related fields, more than double the current figures.
During the summit, France is also expected to announce the establishment of a Paris-based institution focused on diversifying the AI ecosystem through infrastructure investments.
As Trump appears to be tearing up his predecessor's AI guardrails to promote U.S. competitiveness, pressure has built on the European Union to pursue a lighter-touch approach to AI to help keep European firms in the tech race.
"If we want growth, jobs and progress, we must allow innovators to innovate, builders to build and developers to develop," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an op-ed in Le Monde ahead of the summit.
Some EU leaders including the summit's host, Macron, are hoping flexibility will be applied to the bloc's new AI Act to help homegrown startups.
"There's a risk some decide to have no rules and that's dangerous. But there's also the opposite risk, if Europe gives itself too many rules," Macron told regional French newspapers.
"We should not be afraid of innovation," he said.
In particular, Macron emerged as a strong supporter of Paris-based AI startup Mistral, one of the only significant builders of a large language model in Europe.
At the weekend, Nvidia-backed Mistral announced the opening of a data center in the wider Paris region.
Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, which launched a new app with generative AI software last week, told Reuters: "The French and the whole world are realizing that European players count and that they provide cutting-edge technology."
More than 1,000 participants, including leaders from over 80 countries, are set to attend the summit. High-profile attendees include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
Tech leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Sakana AI will also be present. However, the participation of Tesla and X owner Elon Musk remains uncertain.
