‘Long live AI’: Macron pitches France as place to build AI over UK and US
10 February 2025, 18:44
President Emmanuel Macron has been using the Paris-hosted AI Action Summit to push for AI firms to come to France rather than the UK, US or China.
French President Emmanuel Macron has told artificial intelligence (AI) firms they “have to choose Europe and France” for developing AI, as he closed the first day of a summit on the technology.
The two-day AI Action Summit has been seen as a key moment for nations to make their pitch to be a global leader on the technology, after Chinese app DeepSeek’s recent undermining of the sector created a potential power vacuum at the top of the industry.
The UK’s Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is in Paris for the summit, and said he would be pointing to the UK’s recently published AI Opportunities Action Plan, which set out plans to boost AI infrastructure in the UK, including billions of pounds of new investment, and more widely introduce AI in the public sector to streamline work.
Mr Kyle said ahead of the summit he would use the plan as part of his message to foreign investors and to “cement our position as an AI pioneer”.
But closing the first day of the summit, President Macron used his role as host to steal the show, with a passionate pitch for France as a rival to not only the UK, but also the US, when it came to AI development and infrastructure.
He said French and European regulation on the issue would “defend copyright” and “preserve human creativity” and that France would not be “doing away with the world that we believe in”.
In a pitch to big US firms such as Google and OpenAI – both of which are at the summit – Mr Macron said France would “work together” with others “whatever the geopolitics will be”, adding France and the EU would introduce “smart regulation”.
“It’s why you have to choose Europe and France for AI,” he said.
Mr Macron added that France’s energy grid and large amounts of nuclear energy meant it was more sustainable and had enough capacity to house large new data centres needed to prop up the notoriously power-hungry technology, and took a swipe at US President Donald Trump on the issue.
He said: “It’s very important, in this world, where I have a friend on the other side of the ocean who says ‘drill, baby, drill’ – here there is no need to drill.
“It’s just ‘plug, baby, plug’. Electricity is available. You can plug. It’s ready.”
Ahead of the summit, Mr Macron had announced around £91 billion in investment in French AI projects over the coming years, and said the country was “back in the race, thanks to this summit”, before teasing that an announcement on a new EU AI strategy around regulation and investment in computing capacity would be announced on Tuesday.
“Long live AI, long live the Republic, and long live France,” the president said as he closed his address.
On Tuesday, world leaders are set to meet to discuss key issues around AI development going forward, including sustainability, safety and governance, with suggestions of a new signed declaration on the technology expected to come at the summit’s close.
