France to Invest €109 Billion in AI to Catch Up and Overtake OpenAI, DeepSeek and More

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a massive €109 billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI). The decision is France’s response to the US Stargate project, which involves investments of $500 billion. The announcement was made at the third international AI summit, which is currently taking place in Paris.

Image source: Copilot

According to TechCrunch, the bulk of the funds will be used to build new AI-focused data centers. The list of key investors included the United Arab Emirates, which contributed about €50 billion, Canada’s Brookfield (€20 billion), French state investment bank Bpifrance (€10 billion), and telecoms company Iliad (€3 billion). The total announced investment so far is €83 billion. Other companies, such as Orange and Thales, are expected to join the program.

Macron also touched on French AI startups like Mistral, Owkin, and Wandercraft, which have moved their headquarters to the United States. He expressed confidence in Europe’s competitiveness, noting that projects like DeepSeek demonstrate the ability to catch up with industry leaders. “Everyone thought you had to be bigger and stronger. But DeepSeek, by taking the available innovations from OpenAI’s latest model and adapting them, has proven that a more cost-effective approach is possible,” Macron said.

Mistral co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch has announced plans to invest several billion euros in creating an AI cluster in France. As a reminder, Mistral is one of the few European companies developing basic AI models capable of competing with products from tech giants such as Alibaba, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Meta✴ and OpenAI. “We will create a cluster that will allow us to train even more efficient systems in just a few months,” Mensch said confidently.

France produces more electricity than it consumes, and given that most of its energy is generated by nuclear power plants, the country is becoming an attractive location for energy-intensive data centers. It is emphasized that since France also exports electricity to neighboring countries (90 TWh were exported in 2024), this creates additional opportunities for attracting foreign investment. At the same time, Macron noted that a stable and environmentally friendly energy system makes France an ideal place to implement large-scale AI projects.