French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a €109 billion private sector investment plan to boost AI in the country, ahead of the AI Summit which kicks off in Paris this week.
The investment, equivalent to $112.5bn, includes €20bn from Canadian investment firm Brookfield and €50bn from the United Arab Emirates, according to Macron’s office.
“This is the equivalent for France of what the US announced for Stargate,” Macron remarked, referring to the $500bn AI infrastructure project unveiled by US President Donald Trump last month, led by OpenAI and SoftBank.
The announcement comes amid significant developments in the AI field, including the emergence of China’s DeepSeek, and large funding from major US tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta.
“Europe and France must accelerate their investments,” Macron said in an interview with France 2 television.
The Paris summit will also feature the launch of Current AI, a non-profit investment fund aimed at supporting “public interest innovations,” with a focus on privacy and healthcare.
In addition, the Financial Times reported that venture capital firm General Catalyst is leading an investment group planning to spend $150 billion over the next five years to implement AI within companies, invest in European AI startups, and build infrastructure across the region.
The initiative is backed by several venture investors and 60 European companies, including German automaker Volkswagen and Swedish music streaming service Spotify.
