French public lender Bpifrance will invest €10 billion ($10.4 billion) in AI-related projects by 2029, the bank said on Friday, February 7, as Paris hosts a global summit on the technology.
Bpifrance said in a statement that it will invest directly into startups developing AI models, related infrastructure and hardware such as chips, as well as into funds backing the sector and advising the companies it chooses for cash infusions.
The announcement follows weeks after the Trump administration trailed a $500-billion plan for investment into AI infrastructure led by OpenAI and its backer SoftBank. Other AI developers like Facebook parent Meta, Google and Amazon have announced their own plans in the tens of billions of dollars.
Bpifrance in its statement acknowledged a "context of acceleration in global competition with growing numbers of investment announcements."
France nevertheless boasts "a very dynamic ecosystem of startups with many promising companies" that could "reinforce [France's] position, sovereignty and competitiveness."
President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are to co-host a gathering of government and tech business leaders in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, part of a wider summit program also drawing in campaign groups, cultural and media institutions and scientists.