Publicis chief urges France, Germany to lead European AI fund

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17/06/2026 09:35

Lévy wants Paris and Berlin to anchor a continent-wide investment vehicle
He linked the proposal to Anthropic abruptly cutting European access to advanced models
Lévy said reliance on US AI providers threatens competitiveness and some companies' survival
By Leo Marchandon
PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - Publicis PUBP.PA chairman Maurice Lévy on Wednesday called on France and Germany to lead a pan-European artificial intelligence fund, saying the bloc's companies were too exposed to U.S. providers that could cut access to advanced AI models without warning.
Speaking at VivaTech in Paris, Lévy said Europe needed a 100 billion euro ($115 billion) fund to back artificial intelligence across the continent, describing it as a response to what he said was the shock of seeing European companies lose access overnight to frontier models from U.S. startup Anthropic.
"There is a need to create a fund at a European scale," Lévy told Reuters in Paris. "It's a bit like having someone with an on/off switch... who can flip it at will."
Lévy said the idea was not new, pointing to past French and German efforts to deepen digital cooperation and to a later push he attributed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 
He said Europe should treat artificial intelligence as a strategic priority because dependence on foreign providers could threaten companies' competitiveness and, in some cases, their survival.
       

 (Reporting by Leo Marchandon; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
 ((leo.marchandon@thomsonreuters.com))