French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are leading personal outreach campaigns to court tech CEOs as their countries compete to secure AI investment and infrastructure projects. The pair have ramped up moves to court leaders of the world's biggest tech companies, standing out among countries scrambling to develop data centers and ecosystems needed to power AI technology through their use of personal relationships. Countries are racing not to fall behind in AI development, driving intensified diplomatic engagement with technology sector leaders.
Macron Secures SoftBank's 75-Billion-Euro AI Data Center Commitment
In May, SoftBank announced plans to build 3.1 GW of AI data centers in France by 2031, as part of a 75-billion-euro program to roll out 5 GW of AI data center capacity. Macron requested a meeting with SoftBank's Son to persuade him to commit to the project two months earlier, and the two exchanged texts as they hashed out the details, Son told CNBC in an interview.
Macron touted France's power capacity and committed to securing the SoftBank projects 3GW instead of 2GW, the number the French premier first suggested. "His team, the government team is very supportive," Son said. "His team and our team work in collaboration very well."
Around the same time, Macron approached tech bosses to join a working lunch with world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, at the G7 conference in June, which France was hosting. CEOs including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis all took part. Other tech chiefs including France-based Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch, Canada's Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez, Italian company Domyn's Uljan Sharka, U.K. AI scaleup Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli and German-based Black Forest Labs' Robin Rombach were also there.
Modi Welcomes Amazon's $48 Billion India Investment
Modi met with Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy last Thursday, and welcomed the U.S. tech giant's "record $48 billion investment" in the country, of which $21 billion will be for AI and cloud infrastructure.
Modi last year met Microsoft chair and CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan, with all of them committing to help develop India's AI ecosystem.
Modi hosted top U.S. tech leaders at the Global AI summit in India in February, leading to commitments of hundreds of billions of dollars into Indian AI efforts. "India does not see fear in AI. India sees fortune in AI. India sees the future in AI," Modi said in his opening remarks at the summit, urging global tech leaders to "Design and Develop in India" to deliver to the world.
India Establishes Semiconductor Manufacturing Partnerships
Months before the summit, India secured Microsoft's largest investment in Asia to help build the sovereign capabilities needed for India's AI-first future, while Google announced an investment of $15 billion in India to build the firm's largest AI hub in the world outside of the U.S. To encourage hyperscalers to build AI data centers in India, Modi's government has offered long-term tax breaks to them.
During Modi's visit to the Netherlands in May, Dutch firm ASML said it would supply advanced lithography tools and solutions for the 300mm semiconductor fab being set up by Indian firm Tata Electronics. Intel's Lip-Bu Tan, who met Modi last December, also signed up as a prospective buyer for chips made by Tata Electronics.
India relies heavily on foreign AI models and computing hardware, which makes its AI ambitions vulnerable to export control directives of other countries. The recent global AI stocks rally has completely skipped India due to the lack of any large-scale AI play.
FAQ
What did SoftBank announce for France in May?
SoftBank announced plans to build 3.1 GW of AI data centers in France by 2031, as part of a 75-billion-euro program to roll out 5 GW of AI data center capacity.
How much is Amazon investing in India for AI infrastructure?
Amazon committed a record $48 billion investment in India, of which $21 billion will be for AI and cloud infrastructure, as welcomed by Prime Minister Modi last Thursday.
What partnerships did India establish for semiconductor manufacturing?
During Modi's visit to the Netherlands in May, ASML agreed to supply advanced lithography tools and solutions for the 300mm semiconductor fab being set up by Tata Electronics, with Intel's CEO signing up as a prospective buyer for chips made by Tata Electronics.
