A fund from the United Arab Emirates is planning to spend between €30 billion and €50 billion ($31.2 billion and $52 billion) on a brand new campus for information facilities in France, in response to French officers.
The funding is a part of a bilateral announcement made forward of a synthetic intelligence summit French president Emmanuel Macron is holding subsequent week. France and the UAE signed a strategic partnership to advertise cooperation on AI final Could.
In a joint assertion on Friday, the international locations stated they’d intention to construct a facility devoted to AI with one gigawatt of capability. The assertion stated the primary tranche of funding might be introduced throughout Macron’s flagship funding occasion later this 12 months, and are available from a consortium of French and Emirati firms.
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However preliminary financing for the positioning will come from Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund, in response to officers in Macron’s workplace. They didn’t present additional particulars.
MGX, a $100 billion funding automobile, is additionally concerned in Undertaking Stargate, the bold effort from SoftBank Group Corp. and OpenAI to spend $500 billion on information facilities within the US. That initiative is aiming to assemble round a dozen amenities with a gigawatt capability every, Bloomberg Information reported earlier.
Information facilities and AI have been the centerpiece of the UAE’s technique to diversify its economic system and lengthen its political affect. In January, a Dubai billionaire pledged to spend $20 billion on information facilities within the US. G42, an Abu Dhabi tech conglomerate, has introduced main computing initiatives throughout the Center East and Africa.
In 2021, the oil-rich Emirates agreed to purchase 80 Rafale fighter jets from France as a part of a €17 billion deal signed throughout Macron’s go to to the UAE. The nations have additionally mentioned the potential of investing within the nuclear trade. Final 12 months, they labored collectively on a name for ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Macron hosted Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE chief, for a dinner on Thursday about AI.
The French president has made his nation’s ambitions within the discipline a precedence. Whereas a couple of French startups, akin to Mistral, have raised sizable quantities relative to European friends, they’ve struggled to compete with rivals from the US and China.
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