Macron Announces a $112.6 Billion AI investment as France Takes on US Stargate Project
The AI industry in France is set to receive a total of $112.6 billion in private investment, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced. Macron’s AI investment announcement came just a day before the commencement of the Paris AI Action Summit that kicked off on Monday, February 10, TechCrunch reported.
Macron’s AI Growth Plans
Macron said the multibillion investment towards France AI development is equivalent to the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure investment unveiled by US President Donald Trump last month.
“I can tell you this evening, Europe is going to speed up, France is going to speed up,” Macron said during an interview on France 2.
Macron said €109 billion of the new AI investment will be deployed in the coming few years. While acknowledging that Macron’s €109 billion investment is good for the EU AI ecosystem, UK AI startup Synthesia says more is needed to position the region for global competition.
“We need to set the right foundations for Europe to thrive as an ecosystem. It’s great that we invest more in infrastructure. I don’t think it’s the sole solution to the problem. There’s lots of other things we need to worry about as well. But what I think is really great, is there’s political will to actually do something,” Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli said.
Macron also talked about French AI startups like Wandercraft, Mistral, and Owkin that have their headquarters in the US. The French President holds that Europe remains competitive in AI startups and says that DeepSeek presents a huge opportunity to catch up.
“There was a race to scale up. Everybody thought you always had to be bigger and stronger. What did DeepSeek do with its open models? They have taken all accessible innovations from the latest OpenAI model and adapted them to their own model, using a more frugal approach. Everyone will continue to do this. And that’s why you have to be in this race,” he said.
Financial Commitments
France AI investment includes commitments from the UAE, Canadian and American investment funds. The UAE has committed to Top French companies like aerospace and defence group Thales, and telco giants like Orange and Iliad have also made financial commitments to the AI industry.
Just days before the AI Action Summit, the UAE announced an AI investment package of between €30 billion and €50 billion in France to facilitate the establishment of a one-gigawatt AI data center. Paris-based AI company Mistral has committed to invest billions on setting up its own datacenter in France while Iliad has committed €3 billion for AI infrastructure.
Brookfield, a Canadian investment firm plans to invest €20 billion in France AI industry while Bpifrance will be investing €10 billion. Companies such as Thales and Orange are yet to announce their planned investments.
Strategic Positioning
France is positioning itself as the EU’s AI technology leader. Currently, French-owned AI company Mistral is the only known EU firm that is working to develop foundation AI models that can compete with industry leaders like OpenAI, Meta, Antropic, Meta, and DeepSeek.
“We’re going to do our bit and invest several billion euros in a cluster, which will be set up in Essonne, so that we can train even more efficient systems in just a few months’ time,” Mistral CEO and Co-founder Arthur Mensch said.
France also leads in production of decarbonized power and its plan to set up one-gigawatt of nuclear power to support AI training by the end of 2026 further cements its strategic positioning in the region. Tech firms will be looking for new locations to set up data centers. By investing in nuclear power, France is positioning itself as the ideal location for such projects in Europe.
“In France, we have an extraordinary lead. We produce some of the most decarbonized, controllable, and safe electricity in the world. We have the safest and most stable grid. And we export this low-carbon electricity,” Macron added.
Paris is playing host to the AI Action Summit this week. This is the third global summit that’s focused on AI. Previous events were held in South Korea and the UK.
