The European Union wants to invest 200 billion euros in AI to compete with the U.S. and China.
During the AI Action Summit in Paris, European Commission President Ursula Leyen announced that the EU would spend 50 billion euros on top of the funding already done by the European AI Champions Initiative. In total, a substantial $200 billion is at stake.
The last will be the first
“We want Europe to become one of the leading AI contenders. I often hear that Europe is late in the race, while the US or China are already ahead,” Von der Leyen said. “I disagree, because the AI race is far from over.”
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The “InvestAI initiative” aims to build so-called gigafactories that serve to train complex AI models. With these investments, the EU aims to catch up with China and the U.S. in terms of developing advanced AI infrastructure such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
Von der Leyen: “AI will improve our healthcare, boost our research and innovation, and increase our competitiveness. We want AI to be a force for good and for growth. We will do this through our own European approach – based on openness, cooperation and excellent talent.” The EU was one of the first continents to set up regulations around AI, called the AI Act. Some new rules of that recently went into effect.