From Macron to Modi, governments are rolling out the red carpet for AI giants

Key Points

* French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have stepped up personal outreach to major tech CEOs.
* France and India are trying to secure AI data centers, cloud infrastructure and chip investment.
* The push comes as the U.S. and China remain ahead in AI, with other countries struggling to not get left behind.

Nations are racing to keep pace with advancements in AI, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spearheading personal charm initiatives to attract technology CEOs.

This year, the two leaders have intensified their efforts to engage with executives from the world's largest tech firms, aiming to secure investments and significant AI infrastructure projects.

They distinguish themselves from other nations competing to establish the necessary data centers and ecosystems to support this technology through their emphasis on personal connections.

CEOs including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis all took part.