Microsoft Makes EUR 4 Billion AI Investment in France

Microsoft makes a landmark announcement of investing EUR 4 Billion in France. This huge investment is made in AI and cloud infrastructure packages. Microsoft’s AI investment in France is made to speed up the adoption of AI and the cloud and strengthen France’s position in the digital economy by promoting digital technology produced in France.

According to the announcement, by 2025, Microsoft wants to introduce 25,000 most advanced-level graphics processing units in France. Adding to it, by 2027, 1 million people will be trained and 2,500 artificial intelligence (AI) startups will be supported by Microsoft in France.

The strategic announcement about Microsoft’s AI investment in France was made at the Summit of Choose Finance. The Choose Finance initiative was held to promote international investment in the country of Finance.

The primary goal of Microsoft’s AI investment in France is to focus on key areas including French Tech acceleration, AI skilling, and cloud and AI infrastructure.

According to the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith “Microsoft makes EUR 4 Billion AI investment demonstrates a steadfast commitment to supporting digital innovation and economic growth in France,”

Furthermore, Brad Smith also said, “We are building state-of-the-art Cloud and AI infrastructure, training people with AI skills, and supporting French startups as they use our technology with confidence to grow fairly and responsibly.”

Microsoft’s AI investment in France will also contribute to the development of a new data center in the region of Grand Est. The Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération located in Grand Est in France. This will lead to the expansion of data centers in France to stand out in the sector of artificial intelligence positioning it as a global power.

As far as user safety is concerned, Microsoft will continue to operate its AI platforms and infrastructure in France by its AI Access Principles. These Principles are designed to promote innovation and healthy competition in the AI economy. Microsoft has adopted the Responsible AI Standard to govern the use of AI platforms and services. The company has also launched an AI Assurance program to encourage responsible AI practices globally.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has been pushing to make France an artificial intelligence (AI) hub. Paris is already home to one of the world’s leading AI labs, Facebook’s FAIR, established in 2015.

Previously, at VivaTech, France’s largest tech fair, Macron announced EUR 500 million in new funding to support the development of new AI champions, building on the government’s previous promises to invest EUR 1.5 billion in AI by 2022.

These AI investments will address the increasing need for high-performance, scalable, and sustainable AI-specific compute capacity and the requirements of private and public companies of all sizes waiting to capitalize on emerging cloud and AI technologies.

Microsoft’s state-of-the-art computational infrastructure and advanced AI platform services will support the development, deployment, and exploitation of proprietary and open-source artificial intelligence models and applications.

Moreover, Microsoft GenAI Studio will include a program that will run twice a year for three years to accelerate AI adoption by selected French startups.