France’s response to Stargate: Macron announces the investment of AI

The artificial intelligence sector of France will receive 109 billion euros ($ 112.6 billion) of private investment in the “next years”, President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday ahead of the global summit of the country.

Speaking with the French station TF1, Macron described the Euro billionaire promise as “the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate”, referring to the massive of the president of the United States, Donald Trump Private Investment Project of $ 500 billion.

The American joint company, called Stargate, will see Openai, Oracle and Soft banks It spends up to $ 500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States in the next four years.

Meanwhile, the French financing will include commitments of the investment funds of the United Arab Emirates, American and Canada and French companies such as telecommunications companies Iliad and Orangeand aerospace and defense group Such.

A few days before the AI ​​AI Summit of France, which began on Monday, the EAU said it would invest between 30 billion euros and 50 billion euros in the construction of a Gigatia data center in France in France as part of a campus focused on the development of technology.

Iliad promised to spend 3 billion euros on AI infrastructure, while the AI ​​firm based in Paris, Mistral, announced plans to invest billions to build its own data center in France.

Victor Riparebelli, CEO of Synthesia of the British Startup of AI, said that the investment plan of 109 billion euros of Macron was something “excellent” for the European ecosystem of AI, but added that it is needed more to ensure that the continent can compete with technological heavyweights such as technological weights United States and China.

“We need to establish the appropriate bases for Europe to prosper as an ecosystem,” Riparebelli told Arjun Kharpal from CNBC on Monday.

“It’s great that we invert more in infrastructure. I don’t think it’s the only solution to the problem. There are many other things that we must worry too. But what I think is really great, is a political will to really do something,” he added .

Rheat attendees include American vice president JD Vance, the EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Google CEO sundar pichai, Microsoft President Brad Smith, the CEO of Operai, Sam Altman, the CEO of Google Deepmind, Demis Hassabis, and the CEO Anthrope Dario Amodei.

Elon Musk is currently not scheduled to attend.

On Saturday, Axios informed that Altman de OpenAi will warn world leaders this week who need to expand their mentality of AI so that, instead of focusing on risk, as has often the case in Europe, leaders will seek to adopt growth and the opportunities.

The appearance of the Chinese firm Depseek, the AI ​​open source R1, in recent weeks, has caused debates in the industry around the huge capital expenses that companies undertake to inform the infrastructure to train their systems.

Depseek said that total training costs for his new model of AI amounted to $ 5.6 million. However, Doubts have been raised about Deepseek’s claims.

Last month, the semi -toicysis semiconductor firm estimated that Deepseek hardware spending is higher than $ 500 million On the history of the company, and added that the research and development of the startup and the property costs are significant.

On Sunday, Hassabis of Google Deepmind, said that Deepseek’s model is “probably the best work” he has seen in China, but added that, from the point of view of technology, it was not a great change.

“Despite exaggeration, there is no new real scientific advance … It is using known techniques (in AI),” said Hassabis, adding that exaggeration on Depseek has been “exaggerated a bit.”

However, with companies that spend billions in data centers full of advanced semiconductors of the US chips manufacturer. UU. NvidiaThe new Deepseek model has led to the concerns of a possible bubble in the space of AI.

Before the AI ​​Summit, Mike Capone, CEO of the American software firm Qlik, told CNBC that Deepseek is an important point of discussion this week as world governments deal with the progress of China’s advances.

“This summit is not just about AI, it’s about influence,” Capone told CNBC on Friday. “Wait a strategic messaging war such as the leaders of AI, French and the United Kingdom minimize Deepseek’s relevance, while China works to demonstrate that it is not only up to date, but is establishing rhythm.”

“The diplomacy of AI is now as critical as the development of the AI. The struggle of power will not try who builds the best model; it will try who controls the narrative of AI,” he added.

– CNBC Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report