Publicis chief urges France, Germany to lead European AI fund

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June 17, 2026 4:37 AM EDT

Maurice Levy, Chairman of the supervisory board at Publicis Groupe, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

By Leo Marchandon

PARIS, ‌June 17 (Reuters) - ​Publicis ​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)


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