French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a €109 billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to strengthen Europe's position in the rapidly growing technology sector. The announcement comes ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris on Monday, which will be attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Macron emphasized the need for Europe to increase investment to keep pace with global players like Google, Microsoft, and China's DeepSeek. US tech companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are planning AI-related investments exceeding $300 billion annually.
To bolster the French AI sector, the United Arab Emirates will invest up to €50 billion in a new data center campus in France. The initial funding comes from Abu Dhabi's MGX fund, which is also involved in the US Stargate project. Macron described the investment as France's equivalent of Stargate for the US.
Canadian investment firm Brookfield has also announced a €20 billion investment to support the development of AI infrastructure in France.
A non-profit fund, Current AI, is being launched to develop public benefit AI, such as anonymized health data for research purposes. The fund has already raised €400 million, with a target of €2.5 billion over five years.
An investor group led by General Catalyst has pledged €150 billion to promote European AI startups, develop critical infrastructure, and strengthen the region's AI ecosystem. Major companies like Volkswagen, Spotify, and Exor are supporting the initiative to make Europe a global leader in AI.
“We have been woken up and we are deregulating now, we are activating, we are getting ready,” said General Catalyst managing director Jeannette zu Fürstenberg.