French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are actively courting tech company leaders to secure investments in AI infrastructure.
The two leaders have ramped up efforts this year to persuade executives from the world’s largest tech firms to invest in AI infrastructure projects.
Macron hosted AI leaders at the G7 summit in June and personally convinced SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to invest tens of billions into AI data centers in France.
Modi met with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and welcomed the U.S. tech giant's "record $48 billion investment" in India, of which $21 billion will go towards AI and cloud infrastructure.
Macron hosts AI leaders
In May, SoftBank announced plans to build 3.1 GW of AI data centers in France by 2031 as part of a €75 billion program.
Macron persuaded Son to commit to the project, promising to secure 3 GW of capacity instead of the initially suggested 2 GW.
India
Modi also hosted top U.S. tech leaders at the Global AI summit, leading to commitments of hundreds of billions in investments.
"India does not see fear in AI. India sees fortune in AI," Modi stated.
India still does not produce cutting-edge chips and lacks advanced models, placing it at a disadvantage in the AI race.
Modi's government has offered long-term tax breaks to encourage the establishment of AI data centers.
