Amazon and Microsoft to invest $5.6 billion in France

Microsoft and Amazon are investing billions of dollars in France.

Microsoft said in a statement on Monday that it is committing 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in France, in addition to funding AI skills and support for France’s technology industry.

The company said it plans to invest up to 25,000 of the most advanced GPUs or GPUs in France by the end of 2025. Microsoft will also train 1 million people and support 2,500 AI startups by 2027.

The announcement was made during the “Choose France” summit, a meeting dedicated to promoting foreign investment in France.

“This major investment demonstrates a firm commitment to supporting digital innovation and economic growth in France,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement on Monday.

“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 in a fair and responsible way.”

As part of its investment, Microsoft will also open a new data center in the French city of Mulhouse.

Meanwhile, Amazon has committed to investing €1.2 billion in France.

The money will go towards creating more than 3,000 jobs in France – on top of the 2,000 new jobs Amazon has already announced for 2024 – as well as broadly expanding Amazon’s footprint in the country, according to Frédéric Duval, Amazon’s chief executive. for the country.

“Expanding our logistics network supports local economic development, creates quality jobs and allows us to reduce the carbon footprint of our deliveries while improving the overall customer experience,” Duvall said in a statement Monday.

In total, Microsoft and Amazon’s commitments to France amount to $5.6 billion in funding. France reportedly secured a record 15 billion euros in investment commitments from foreign companies at the annual Choose France summit on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to promote France as a hub for artificial intelligence. Paris is already a major center for AI research and development, with Facebook after setting up one of its main artificial intelligence labs, FAIR, there in 2015.

Last year at the VivaTech technology fair in Paris, Macron announced new funding of 500 million euros ($540 million) to create new AI “champions,” adding to previous government commitments, including a promise to pour €1.5 billion into AI before 2022

Microsoft is also making a charm offensive with its commitment to invest billions of euros in France at a time when French officials have raised concerns about the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant’s investment in artificial intelligence startup Mistral.

Microsoft recently made a €15 million investment in Mistral. The deal saw Microsoft gain a stake in Mistral and the latter add its large language model to the tech giant’s Azure cloud computing platform.

Microsoft has dismissed competition concerns surrounding its investment in Mistral, saying the company remains independent and that its partnership is a minority equity investment and commercial relationship, not a merger. The UK competition regulator is seeking feedback on the deal.