The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron has just announced a partnership with the United Arab Emirates, which will invest between 30 and 50 billion euros in France to create a gigantic campus dedicated to AI, including one of the most powerful data centers in the world. Enough to make France the European leader in
France is preparing to become a real major player, even leader, in artificial intelligence (AI) thanks to a strategic partnership with the United Arab Emirates. On Thursday, February 6, 2025, one week before the Summit for Action on AI, the Élysée unveiled a spectacular large-scale project aimed at transforming the French and European technological landscape in terms of Artificial Intelligence.
An extraordinary project
At the heart of the project, this agreement provides for the construction of a huge campus dedicated to AI and including a giant data center with a computing capacity of up to one gigawatt, which will make it one of the largest data centers in the world. This power will allow it in particular to run future AI models with complete sovereignty and efficiency.
The campus will be developed by a Franco-Emirati consortium, with the notable participation of the MGX investment fund. The estimated investment is between 30 and 50 billion euros., demonstrating the extent of the UAE's commitment.
35 sites pre-selected for the establishment of the campus
Although the precise location of the future campus has not yet been fully revealed, the French government has indicated that it has identified 35 “ready-to-use” sites to host data centers. An announcement regarding the first tranche of investment is expected during the Choose France 2025 Summit in May. But we already know that such a structure will be able to accommodate several thousand students, researchers and probably companies or startups in the sector to create emulation and benefit from a unique technological environment.
Train 100,000 AI specialists
This project is part of a broader strategy aimed at positioning France as a European leader in AI. Emmanuel Macron expressed his ambition to train 100,000 AI researchers by 2030, for the purpose of to make France the “leading country” of the European continent in artificial intelligence.
10 to 20,000 students and 1,000 to 2,000 researchers could find their place on this campus each year. The agreement also provides for academic partnerships, with the Creation of double degrees in AI engineering, student exchanges and joint research projects. This collaboration extends to defense, energy, health and finance sectors.
For the UAE, this is an opportunity to diversify its investments and assert itself as a major player in AI on a global scale.
This project marks a crucial step in the development of the AI ecosystem in France, promising to stimulate research, innovation and to attract talent and investment additional skills in the sector, drawing on already recognised skills and a thriving French ecosystem that is also recognised.
