Artificial intelligence's new eldorado
13 February 2025
Fresh off hosting the Olympics and celebrating Notre Dame's grand reopening, Paris once again welcomed the world. Over two days, the steel vaults of the Grand Palais offered a sumptuous stage to a high-level conference on the future of AI, co-hosted by France and India. But as usual, the most important thing happened behind the scenes.
On the eve of the event, Emmanuel Macron announced that France will benefit from a substantial investment of €109 billion to propel its AI sector forward. Macron said this figure, relative to GDP, rivals the US' $500 billion AI Stargate project.
The bulk of the funding will come from private investors from all over the world, with an additional €50 billion from the United Arab Emirates to build a European research centre on AI, though its location remains undecided.
France is catching up on AI, partly thanks to its nuclear reactors. Their stable, affordable energy is an essential asset for power-hungry data centres.
 | Guillaume Amouret The news comes as Mistral AI, the French challenger to OpenAI and DeepSeek, launched its own AI assistant: 'Le Chat'. Macron seems keen to position the app as Europe's leading AI benchmark: over the past week, he's been posting AI videos of himself on social media. The company also recently announced a strategic partnership with the defence technology company Helsing to "strengthen Europe's technological leadership in AI and defence." |
Welcome to The European Correspondent
Europe lacks true European media: in Germany alone, there are more media devoted exclusively to football than news outlets specialising on Europe. The established players mainly focus on Brussels and European institutions. The European Correspondent aims to change that. We cover the whole of Europe and write for a community of citizens who want to look beyond their own national borders. Without European journalism, there is no European civil society.
〉Read our manifesto
〉The stories we would like to write for you
Become a donor!
The European Correspondent is fully funded by its readers. We can only produce the newsletter with your support - and work towards the bigger project: building true European media. Donate now!
With your help, we can create true European journalism. Thank you!
We are non-profit. Every donated € goes directly into The European Correspondent.