France will pour an additional €655 million (about $707 million) into artificial intelligence, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced June 16, 2026—one day before the opening of VivaTech, Europe’s biggest tech trade show, in Paris.
The new funding package is designed to cover computing infrastructure, research, companies, and industrial supply chains. Lecornu said he wants the technology shift to “benefit the French,” “protect our sovereignty,” and “strengthen our public services.”
Notably, Lecornu delivered the announcement on his social media accounts—an unusual channel for a decision of this scale—against the backdrop of an accelerating global AI race in which France is trying to keep pace with U.S. tech giants and China’s growing ambitions.
France’s domestic intelligence agency ends its Palantir contract
The budget announcement came with a second, politically charged signal about France’s tech strategy. Lecornu confirmed that the DGSI—France’s domestic intelligence service—has ended its contract with Palantir, the U.S. data analytics company whose co-founder Peter Thiel has close ties to Donald Trump.
The DGSI selected the French firm ChapsVision instead. The move reflects a line that has been taking shape for months: reducing sensitive government agencies’ exposure to non-European vendors, particularly American ones. As framed in France, the decision is not just technical—it’s political.
VivaTech 2026 puts digital sovereignty front and center
VivaTech’s 10th edition opened in Paris on June 17, 2026, with AI, robotics, and “digital sovereignty” as the central themes—especially in response to U.S. and Chinese platforms.
France’s Finance Ministry, often referred to as “Bercy,” also announced plans to roll out a conversational AI agent to all civil servants as part of what Lecornu called a “method of transforming the state.”
Even as France talks up rebalancing, American players are still expanding in the country. OpenAI France is growing its teams in Paris and looking for larger office space, a sign that U.S. companies are not sitting out France’s push for more control over strategic technology.
France had already showcased its ambitions at the Choose France 2026 summit, which drew a record €93 billion (about $100.4 billion) in foreign investment commitments, driven in part by AI-related announcements. Workday, the U.S. HR software company, committed €200 million (about $216 million) over three years, including training more than 1,000 employees in AI.
A lingering question: can France match U.S. labs’ financial firepower?
The new announcements are also drawing scrutiny. Le Figaro reported that restrictions preventing Anthropic from exporting its latest models triggered an “electric shock” among French political leaders, who “promise to fight the technological battle, but dodge the capital battle.”
France does have an AI ecosystem: Mistral AI was targeted by a cyberattack in May 2026, and companies such as Dragon LLM, LightOn, and Pleias are trying to build a European alternative. The open question is whether €655 million (about $707 million) is enough to shift the balance of power against U.S. labs whose budgets run into the tens of billions.
