Thousands of tech executives, academics and world leaders are descending on Paris, as the French capital gears up for the AI Action Summit.
A follow-up to the world’s first AI Safety Summit held in Britain just over a year ago, the Paris conference is expected to strike a markedly different tone to its Bletchley Park predecessor — shifting focus from the risks presented by AI to the opportunities.
Overseen by French president Emmanuel Macron, the summit is expected to gather representatives from around 100 countries alongside more than 1,000 startups, Big Tech companies, NGOs, researchers and policymakers, for the two-day event in Paris.
It comes just weeks after Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused market turmoil with the release of its R1 large language model (LLM), which appeared to perform as well as products shipped by industry leaders like OpenAI and Google — at a fraction of the price.
Just as the first of many new rules under the European Union’s AI Act come into force, homegrown startups are keen to bend lawmakers’ ears over how they can lessen the regulatory burden.
“This conference is a turning point. It’s about shifting the conversation from fear and constraints to ambition and leadership,” says Philippe Corrot, CEO of Paris-based AI startup Mirakl. “For startups, this is a moment to seize. Europe can be a leader in AI innovation, and this conference is a platform to push for policies that fuel — not stifle — growth,” Weber says.
“It’s a chance to connect with investors, policymakers and industry leaders to shape a regulatory environment that allows European AI startups to scale globally.”
Organisers have teased a who’s who of high-profile attendees, including Google’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, as well as Nobel Prize winner and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and high-profile AI researcher Yann LeCun.
US vice president JD Vance and China’s vice premier Ding Xuexiang have also been reported to attend, with a dinner at the Élysée presidential palace planned for Monday evening.
Thousands more attendees will flock to the French capital to participate in dozens of side events, some of which have already kicked off.
Behind the global diplomatic objectives lies a not-so-thinly-veiled ambition to position France as a central player in the AI race. “The summit will, before anything else, demonstrate the leadership and attractivity of France in AI,” said AI minister Clara Chappaz in a recent statement.
“What’s at stake is the visibility of France and of Europe in an AI ecosystem that is in the process of being created, in which every global power wants to take a key role,” Alice Albizzati, the cofounder of French growth VC Revaia, tells Sifted.
France’s role in AI
The AI Action Summit comes at a pivotal moment for Europe, as the region tries to establish its relevance in the face of deep-pocketed Big Tech giants in the US, and fast-moving technological developments in China.
Last month, US president Donald Trump announced a new plan to gather up to $500bn in investments over the next four years to build new infrastructure for leading GenAI developer OpenAI — which tech leaders in Europe said should be a “wake-up call” for the region.
With Trump back in the White House, the pressure on Europe to find its place in AI has increased, says centrist MP Paul Midy, who focuses on tech and startups.
“We’re in a geopolitical context where it’s increasingly every man for himself,” Midy tells Sifted. “Europe has to find technological sovereignty. It is one of the key conditions of our future prosperity and of our capacity to hold on to our values.”
The emergence of DeepSeek in the past few weeks has also acted as a reminder that China is a serious contender in the AI race.
“Showing that Paris is important on the AI scene is in part a reaction to DeepSeek,” a government source familiar with policymaking decisions tells Sifted. “You can see there is an attempt to hammer this message in on the presidential side.
“In the battle with China and the US, France wants to assert itself as a distinct alternative in the AI landscape.”
A new AI dynamic
One of the objectives of the summit, says one source close to the organisation of the event, is to facilitate partnerships that can enable the emergence of alternative global powers in AI.
Invites were sent to heads of states from around the world, and France is co-hosting the event with India — a choice that is “no coincidence,” according to this source.
“We believe that it is a partner of choice for Europe to exist between the US and China on AI,” they tell Sifted.
The summit is also about unlocking the resources needed in the region to become more competitive in AI, which largely means attracting foreign investments and mobilising compute power.
“It will be an opportunity to make announcements,” says this source. “[European Commission President] Ursula Von Der Leyen won’t be coming empty-handed, she knows expectations are high.”
The AI paradox
Angie Ma, cofounder of London-based Faculty AI, says Paris offers the opportunity to start solving a key paradox: billions of investment, yet little business value.
“The focus should be on applying frontier AI to solve frontline problems — be that speeding up clinical trials, cutting teacher workloads or approving insurance claims faster,” Ma tells Sifted.
“It needs governments and businesses to stop treating AI as a snazzy widget or ‘nice to have’ and start using it to actually transform how they operate.”
Beyond the national and regional interests, organisers say that the objective is to develop global standards to ensure AI serves the public interest, with a particular focus on creating tools that are more environmentally-friendly.
Anne Bouverot, the presidential special envoy in charge of organising the event, told French publication La Tribune that one of the summit’s aims is to establish an AI foundation in Paris dedicated to the public interest. The French government plans to raise €2.5bn for the project over the next five years, including €500m this year.
She also said that the summit will close with a declaration from the heads of state as well as a “number of announcements”.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/ai-action-summit-preview/
