PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced investment pledges to bolster France’s artificial intelligence sector totalling 109 billion euros ($112 billion)over the coming years.
The financing, unveiled during the Paris AI summit, includes plans by Canadian investment firm Brookfield to invest 20 billion euros in AI projects in France and financing from the United Arab Emirates which could hit 50 billion euros in the years ahead.
Below is a list of some of those investment pledges, according to the Élysée and the companies:
AMAZON:
The U.S. retail giant pledged more than 1.2 billion euros at last May’s Choose France summit, part of a 6 billion euro investment to develop cloud infrastructure in France by 2031.
APOLLO:
Alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management has put up an initial tranche of funding for AI energy-related investments totalling $5 billion.
DIGITAL REALTY:
Digital Realty, a real estate investment trust which leases out managed data centres, plans to deepen investments in data centres around Paris, and in Marseille, with a total pledge that could reach 6 billions euros.
EQUINIX:
Data centre firm Equinix plans to invest 630 million euros as part of a 750 million euro pledge that will lead to 10 data centres around Paris and one in Bordeaux.
FLUIDSTACK:
The AI cloud platform firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with the French government to build one of the world’s biggest AI supercomputers, powered by French nuclear energy. An initial phase would see 10 billion euros invested, with the project operational by 2026, the company says.
MISTRAL:
Nvidia-backed French startup Mistral AI, whose recently launched Le Chat assistant is touted as Eurpoe’s response to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT, plans to launch the largest supercomputer in Europe, while also deepening partnerships with French companies including Veolia and software developer Dassault Systemes.
($1 = 0.9698 euros)
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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