Emmanuel Macron, the French President, announced a €109 billion (£112.5 billion) private sector investment package for artificial intelligence development in France. The announcement came ahead of the Paris AI summit beginning on February 10, 2025, attended by world leaders and technology industry players. The initiative aims to help Europe catch up with the United States and China in the AI race.
As part of the funding package, the United Arab Emirates is investing €50 billion in European AI projects, while Canadian investment firm Brookfield is allocating €20 billion for similar purposes. The Paris summit is expected to announce the creation of a non-profit investment fund called Current AI, which will support public interest AI developments, such as projects aimed at anonymising healthcare data. The fund's five-year goal is to raise €2.5 billion, of which €400 million has already been pledged by supporters. The announcement's timing is no coincidence: US President Donald Trump announced the $500 billion Stargate project in January, involving OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle. In an interview with TF1 television, Macron stated that this means the same for France as the United States announced with Stargate.
The investment, crucial for European AI competitiveness, aims to position France as a leader in the global AI race. The summit is being attended by tech leaders such as Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Brad Smith (Microsoft President), and Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO), as well as world leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President JD Vance. Currently, Europe possesses only 3-5% of global computing capacity, with Macron aiming to increase this to 20%. AI development requires significant energy resources, particularly for operating data centres, which presents a challenge for Europe in meeting future energy demands.
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France will announce private sector investments totaling some 109 billion euros in its artificial intelligence sector during the Paris AI summit.
Ryan Browne
