The European Union aims to match the vast artificial intelligence ambitions of the United States with a new investment exceeding previous commitments by billions.
At the inaugural AI Action Summit in Paris this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU member states would be pooling €200 billion together to build Europe’s AI-integrated future.
Notably, this “InvestAI” initiative will allocate €20 billion to establish four new European AI gigafactories that will train the continent’s most advance artificial intelligence models. In December, the European Commission said there would eventually be a total of seven.
A €50 billion-euro contribution will be coming directly out of the EU budget while the remainder will be obtained from private industry investors through what has been designated as the EU AI Champions Initiative.
Notable attendees at the event included American Vice President JD Vance, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch.
The news follows French President Emmanuel Macron revealing a €109 billion-euro investment plan for France alone on Sunday. It also follows the United States announcing the massive US$500-billion-dollar “Stargate” AI project in January and China’s monumental release of DeepSeek.
These massive undertakings and achievements highlight the enhanced focus of world governments on leadership in AI development.
"We aim to mobilise a total of €200 billion for AI investments in Europe.
It will be the largest public-private partnership in the world for the development of trustworthy AI."
— President @vonderleyen at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit pic.twitter.com/RoCqNqtg29
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) February 11, 2025
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Leading French AI developer partners with Helsing for European defence
An influential French company made another significant announcement at the Grand Palais building in Paris where the summit was held.
Mensch’s renowned startup Mistral AI and the European defence tech company Helsing revealed a new partnership at the event. They will be combining their expertise to help position Europe as a leader in AI-integrated military technology.
“Mistral AI’s versatile models are instrumental in developing a new generation of defence systems, ensuring Europe’s strategic advantage in the global landscape,” Mensch said in a news release about the collaboration on Feb. 10.
rowan@mugglehead.com
