France pledges to build one gigawatt of new nuclear to speed up its AI ambitions

It's France's turn to get in on the AI boom. On Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron announced private investments into the country's AI ecosystem totaling €109 billion ($112.5 billion). The announcement came ahead of Paris hosting the AI Action Summit on Monday and Tuesday. 

"I can tell you this evening, Europe is going to speed up, France is going to speed up," Macron stated during a TV interview on France 2 and India's First Post. He further explained that the investment is "exactly the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate — $500 billion — it’s the same ratio," when accounting for France's significantly smaller population. 

Today, France will also reportedly pledge a gigawatt of nuclear power to create an AI computing project, the The Wall Street Journal reports. France has nuclear power to spare, with 57 reactors in 18 plants and exporting about a fifth of the electricity it produced last year — despite using nuclear power for over two-thirds of its electricity. 

The project's lead, FluidStack, aims to start work in the third quarter of 2024. By the end of 2026, the goal is to have 250 megawatts of power linked to AI-computing chips. Most of these chips are made by Nvidia, which FluidStack claims will send chips over when they need them. It also states that there's potential to expand to a 10 gigawatt facility by 2030. 

The news follows Macron and United Arab Emirates leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan's February 6 announcement to put between €30 million and €50 million ($31 million to $51.6 million) towards a one-gigawatt AI center. 

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