AI Action Summit in Paris: EU Pledges Investment, U.S. Pushes Back

Boosting AI: EU Investments on the Rise AI Action Summit in Paris: EU Pledges Investment, U.S. Pushes Back

2025-02-12 From Susanne Braun | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

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Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi hosted the two-day AI Action Summit in Paris.(Image: Elysee) — Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi hosted the two-day AI Action Summit in Paris.
(Image: Elysee)

On February 10 and 11, 2025, the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit took place in Paris. Hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit brought together leading politicians, technology entrepreneurs and scientists to discuss security, business and governance in the age of AI. At the end of the conference, various companies and institutions announced significant investments.

Macron's Stargate initiative

Shortly before the summit, Macron presented an initiative to mobilize 109 billion euros in private investment for the French AI sector. Capital is to come from the Canadian investment firm Brookfield and the French companies Iliad, Orange and Thales, among others. Macron drew parallels with the so-called Stargate project in the USA, which is planned with around 500 billion US dollars in private investment. The French plan also includes a partnership with the United Arab Emirates, which is to provide between 30 and 50 billion euros for the construction of the largest data center in Europe.

US-Präsident Donald Trump startet mit der Initiative Stargate massive Investitionen in die KI-Infrastruktur in den USA. (Image:DALL-E / AI-generated)

150 billion euros for European AI

A group of 20 large companies, investors and start-ups, led by the investment firm General Catalyst, announced that it would invest 150 billion euros (approx. 155,7 billion USD) in European AI projects over the next five years. The aim is to work closely with the European Commission to create a "drastically simplified AI legal framework".

Macron also launched the Current AI project, which is being funded with an initial investment of 400 million dollars (around 387 million euros) (via Euronews). In addition to the French government, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Slovakia are also taking part in the initiative. The non-profit foundation aims to improve access to data sets, invest in open source tools and research the social and environmental impact of AI. The program is supported by leading tech founders, including Discord, OpenAI and Roblox.

Mistral—Europe's hope in the AI race

Probably the best-known European AI company is Mistral AI. The French start-up specializes in powerful open-source language models and is considered one of the serious challengers to OpenAI (ChatGPT). Mistral's most important models include Mistral 7B and the Mixtral 8 × 7B, a so-called Mixture of Experts (MoE) model. The partnership between Mistral AI and Helsing, a company specializing in defence technology, was announced at the summit. Together, they want to develop AI systems for the defense sector.

US criticism of EU regulations—and contradictions in its own policy?

While China is gaining influence with DeepSeek, Europe wants to use this moment to expand its technological independence. However, US Vice President JD Vance is skeptical, according to media reports (Reuters). He reiterated that the US would remain the leader in AI development and accused the EU of stifling the innovative power of the technology with its "massive regulations". In particular, he rejected content moderation as "authoritarian censorship".

It is therefore hardly surprising that the USA and the UK have not signed the final declaration for "Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet". This is a highly political final declaration that aims to promote an international AI governance model. It seeks to strike a balance between open innovation, ethical standards and economic development.

Vance justified his criticism with concerns about political influence on AI systems: "AI must remain free of ideological bias and must not become an instrument of authoritarian censorship." However, Vance's criticism seems contradictory: while he dismisses EU regulations as interference in the free market economy, the US government itself is working on proposals to regulate AI exports and safety guidelines. However, Donald Trump's new administration has only recently started work. The drafted US regulations can still be debated until April 2025; whether they will actually be implemented then is unclear. (sb)

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