French President Emmanuel Macron announced the value of French artificial intelligence in the next few years as Europe seeks a foothold in the United States and China with larger and faster development industries.
Macron touted new funding ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris, which began on Monday, including discussions between world leaders and AI executives such as Openai’s Sam Altman.
It was after U.S. President Donald Trump praised a $500 billion AI infrastructure project last month called Stargate, which will be built in the U.S. and led by OpenAI and Softbank.
Large tech groups Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta ranked $300 billion in AI-related capital expenditures this year.
Meanwhile, Chinese groups such as DeepSeek have made great strides in developing highly competitive and low-cost AI models, while Huawei has made substantial investments in building chips that can rival market leader NVIDIA.
Faced with such competition, “Europe and France must accelerate their investment,” Macron told France 2 TV on Sunday.
To this end, France will announce on Monday that the company has agreed to invest 100.9 billion euros in the country’s AI projects in the next few years.
“This is the equivalent of the Stargate announced by the United States,” Macron said.
The move underscores Macron’s determination to be part of the development and commercialization of cutting-edge technologies in France and Europe.
A French investment will come from the United Arab Emirates, which said last week it will invest up to €50 billion in new data centers.
The initial financing will come from the MGX fund in Abu Dhabi, a $10 billion investment vehicle involving Stargate, and a group of French companies will join in later.
On Sunday, Canadian asset manager Brookfield also announced a €20 billion investment to support the deployment of French AI infrastructure.
Another outcome of the Paris Summit will be the creation of a nonprofit investment fund called “Current AI” that aims to further launch what is called “public interest AI” such as creating privacy-friendly, anonymous healthcare data for AI projects. There is a fundraising target of about €2.5 billion.
On Monday, venture capital firm General Catalyst told the Financial Times that it is leading a broader investment group that plans to spend €150 billion over the next five years to deploy AI on-premises, invest in European AI startups, and Establish critical infrastructure areas in the company.
The program, known as the EU AI Champion Initiative, aims to “build Europe as a global leader in AI”. Other private equity and venture investors who join the program include KKR, Blackstone, EQT, CVC and DST Global. The specific spending plans for some investors have not been determined and depend on identifying investment opportunities as well as other factors such as regulation.
The program is also supported by more than 60 European companies, including German automaker Volkswagen, Swedish music streamer Spotify and Italian-Dutch Investment Group Exor. These companies promise to “accelerate and adopt” AI, but have not yet committed to specific spending on technology.
The groups are expected to join forces to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and propose new policy recommendations aimed at cutting the traditional Chinese tape festival to coordinate and simplify the EU’s AI and data laws.
General Catalyst Managing Director Jeannette Zu Fürstenberg said she has obtained numbers from European industry to buy European AI, adding: “We’ve called, we’re now deregulating, we’re activate, we’re activate, we’re activate, we’re Begin to get ready.”
European startups have long lagged behind their U.S. and Chinese counterparts due to insufficient funds, access to computing power and how to apply regulations.
For Macron, the summit is an opportunity to show that France can still play softer on large global issues such as AI.
He advocates Europe to develop its own AI platforms and applications so as not to rely solely on our and Chinese innovations to influence a technology that will affect so many business, consumer and social fields.
In particular, he has been a cheerleader for Paris-based AI startup Mistral, one of the only major builders of major language models in Europe, whose CEO Arthur Mensch is expected to be the French summit.
Macron and other leaders, such as co-host Narendra Modi of India, are expected to advocate for more “open” and shared AI platforms, such as those built by Mistral and Deepseek, while Not a closed alternative provided by OpenAI and Google and Google.
Yann Lecun, a well-known French researcher at META, said that the U.S. company with closed models “has a misplaced advantage complex,” adding: “The open world is catching up with them.”
Ivan Levingston of London, Henry Foy of Brussels and Barbara Moens
