France and Britain are battling it out for Europe’s A.I. crown
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Kin Cheung | Pool | Getty Images
LONDON — Two countries are jockeying for position as Europe’s capital for artificial intelligence.
Both French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have made bold statements about AI in recent weeks, as each tries to claim a stake in the highly hyped market.
“I think we are number one [in AI] in continental Europe, and we have to accelerate,” Macron told CNBC’s Karen Tso at France’s annual tech conference Viva Tech on June 18, while Sunak pitched the U.K. as the “geographical home of global AI safety regulation” at the London Tech Week conference on June 12.
AI is seen as revolutionary and therefore of strategic importance to governments around the world.
Hype around the technology has been partly sparked by the viral nature of Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It has also been the source of tech tensions between the U.S. and China as countries around the world try to harness the potential of the most critical technologies.
So, who is leading the race to take Europe’s AI crown?
Money matters
At VivaTech in Paris, Macron announced 500 million euros ($562 million) in new funding to create new AI “champions.” This comes on top of previous commitments from the government, including a promise to pump 1.5 billion euros into artificial intelligence before 2022, in an attempt to catch up with the U.S. and Chinese markets.
“We will invest like crazy on training and research,” Macron told CNBC, adding that France is well-positioned in AI due to its access to talent and startups forming around the technology.
In March, the U.K. government pledged £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to supercomputing and AI research, as it looks to become a “science and technology superpower.”
As part of the strategy, the government said it wanted to spend around £900 million on building an “exascale” computer capable of building its own “BritGPT,” which would rival OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot.
However, some officials have criticized the funding pledge, saying it’s not enough to help the U.K. compete with titans like the U.S. and China.
“It sounds great but it’s nowhere near where we need to be,” Sajid Javid, a former government minister in ex-PM Boris Johnson’s cabinet, said in a fireside discussion at London Tech Week.
Policing A.I. abuses
One big difference between the U.K. and France is how each country is opting to regulate artificial intelligence, and the laws already in place that affect the quick-moving technology.
The European Union has its AI Act, which is set to be the first comprehensive set of laws focusing on artificial intelligence in the West. The legislation was approved by lawmakers in the European Parliament in June.
It assesses different applications of AI based on risk — for example, real-time biometric identification and social scoring systems are considered as posing “unacceptable risk,” and are therefore banned under the regulation.
France will be under direct jurisdiction of the AI Act, and it would be “unsurprising” if the relevant French regulator, either the CNIL or a new, AI-specific regulator, took an “aggressive approach” to its enforcement, according to Minesh Tanna, global AI lead at international law firm Simmons & Simmons.
In the U.K., rather than issue AI-specific laws, the government launched a white paper advising various industry regulators on how they should enforce existing rules on their respective sectors. The white paper takes a principles-based approach to regulating AI.
The government has touted the framework as a “flexible” approach to regulation, which Tanna described as more “pro-innovation” than the French method.
“The UK’s approach is driven, in a post-Brexit world, by a desire to encourage AI investment,” he added, which gives the U.K. more “freedom and flexibility to pitch regulation at the appropriate level to encourage investment,” he said in an email to CNBC.
In contrast the EU’s AI Act could make France “less attractive” for investment in artificial intelligence given that it lays down “a burdensome regulatory regime” for AI, Tanna said.
Who will win?
“France definitely has a chance to be the leader in Europe, but it faces stiff competition from Germany and the U.K.,” Anton Dahbura, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy, told CNBC via email.
Alexandre Lebrun, CEO of Nabla, an AI “copilot” for doctors, said the U.K. and France are “probably even” when it comes to attractiveness for starting an AI company.
“There’s a good talent pool, strongholds like Google and Facebook AI research centers, and a reasonable local market,” he told CNBC, but he warned that the EU AI Act would make it “impossible” for startups to build AI in the EU.
“If at the same time the U.K. adopts a smarter law, it will definitely win against EU and France,” Lebrun added.
At the same time, London has been the source of a lot of doom and gloom from some corners of the industry, who’ve criticized the country for being an unattractive place for tech entrepreneurs.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour party, told attendees at London Tech Week that a series of political crises in the country has dented investor sentiment on tech generally.
“Many investors say to me we are not investing in the U.K. right now because we don’t see the conditions of certainty politically that we need in order to invest,” Starmer said.
Claire Trachet, CFO of French tech startup YesWeHack, said the U.K. and France both have potential to challenge the dominance of U.S. AI giants — but it’s just as much about collaboration across Europe as it is competition between different hubs.
“It would require a concerted and collective effort of European tech superpowers,” she said. “To truly make a meaningful impact, they must leverage their collective resources, foster collaboration, and invest in nurturing a robust ecosystem.”
“Combining strengths — particularly with Germany’s involvement — could allow them to create a compelling alternative in the next 10-15 years that disrupts the AI landscape, but again, this would require a heavily strategic vision and collaborative approach,” Trachet added.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai speaks during the tech titan’s annual I/O developers conference on May 14, 2024, in Mountain View, California.
Glenn Chapman | Afp | Getty Images
Google will start using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are age appropriate for its products, the company said Wednesday.
Google announced the new technique for determining users’ ages as part of a blog focused on “New digital protections for kids, teens and parents.” The automation will be used across Google products, including YouTube, a spokesperson confirmed. Google has billions of users across its properties and users designated as under the age of 18 have restrictions to some Google services.
“This year we’ll begin testing a machine learning-based age estimation model in the U.S.,” wrote Jenn Fitzpatrick, SVP of Google’s “Core” Technology team, in the blog post. The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety.
“This model helps us estimate whether a user is over or under 18 so that we can apply protections to help provide more age-appropriate experiences,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
The latest AI move also comes as lawmakers pressure online platforms to create more provisions around child safety. The company said it will bring its AI-based age estimations to more countries over time. Meta rolled out similar features that uses AI to determine that someone may be lying about their age in September.
Google, and others within the tech industry, have been ramping their reliance on AI for various tasks and products. Using AI for age-related content represents the latest AI front for Google.
The new initiative by Google’s “Core” team comes despite the company reorganization that unit last year, laying off hundreds of employees and moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC reported at the time.
WATCH: Google kills diversity hiring targets, reviewing other DEI programs
Adam Foroughi, CEO of AppLovin.
CNBC
AppLovin shares soared almost 30% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported earnings and revenue that sailed past analysts’ estimates and issued better-than-expected guidance.
Here’s how the company performed compared with analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.73 vs. $1.24 expected
- Revenue: $1.37 billion vs. $1.26 billion expected
Net income in the quarter more than tripled to $599.2 million, or $1.73 per share, from $172.3 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Revenue jumped 43% from $953.3 million a year earlier.
AppLovin was the best-performing U.S. tech stock last year, soaring more than 700%, driven by the company’s artificial intelligence-powered advertising system. In 2023, AppLovin released the updated 2.0 version of its ad search engine called AXON, which helps put more targeted ads on the gaming apps the company owns and is also used by studios that license the technology.
AppLovin’s business has been split between advertising and apps, which is primarily made up of game studios that the company has acquired over the years. With the historic growth in its advertising unit, the apps business has become much less important, and now the company says it is selling it off.
“Today we’re announcing we’ve signed an exclusive term sheet to sell all of our apps business,” CEO Adam Foroughi said on the earnings call.
Later in the call, the company said it has signed a term sheet for the sale for a “total estimated consideration” of $900 million. That includes $500 million in cash, “with the remainder representing a minority equity stake in the combined private company.”
Advertising revenue climbed 73% in the quarter to almost $1 billion. The ad business was previously categorized as Software Platform. The company said it made the change because advertising accounts for “substantially all of the revenue in this segment.”
AppLovin said it expects first-quarter revenue of between $1.36 billion and 1.39 billion, exceeding the $1.32 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. More than $1 billion of that will come from its advertising segment, as the company said it is “still in the early stages” of bolstering its AI models.
“The roadmap ahead is filled with opportunities for iteration,” the company said in its shareholder letter. “As we execute, we believe we can continue to drive value creation for our shareholders.”
WATCH: AppLovin shares jump
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Cisco shares climbed about 6% in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking hardware maker reported fiscal second-quarter results and guidance that topped Wall Street’s expectations.
Here’s how the company did against LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: 94 cents adjusted vs. 91 cents expected
- Revenue: $13.99 billion vs. $13.87 billion expected
Revenue increased 9% in the quarter, which ended on Jan. 25, from $12.79 billion a year earlier, according to a statement. The growth follows four quarters of revenue declines. The company said it had orders for artificial intelligence infrastructure that exceeded $350 million in the quarter.
Cisco now sees adjusted earnings of $3.68 to $3.74 for the 2025 fiscal year, with $56 billion to $56.5 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had been looking for $3.66 in adjusted earnings per share and $55.99 billion in revenue. In November, the forecast was $3.60 to $3.66 in earnings per share and $55.3 billion to $56.3 billion in revenue.
Net income in the latest period slid almost 8% to $2.43 billion, or 61 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 65 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue from the networking division totaled $6.85 billion, down 3% but more than the $6.67 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount.
The security unit contributed $2.11 billion. That is a 117% increase from a year earlier, thanks to the addition of Splunk. Analysts expected $2.01 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Splunk, which Cisco bought in March 2024 for $27 billion, was accretive to adjusted earnings per share sooner than planned, Scott Herren, Cisco’s finance chief, was quoted as saying in the statement. Cisco’s total revenue would have been down 1% year over year if not for Splunk’s contribution, according to the statement.
Many technology companies have been trying to predict the effects from President Donald Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency. But three-quarters of Cisco’s U.S. federal business comes from the Defense Department, while most of the headcount cutting thus far has occurred in other agencies, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said on a conference call with analysts.
“Everything seems to be progressing as we expected,” he said.
Customers do not appear to be pulling up orders before tariffs go into effect, Herren said on the conference call.
As of Thursday’s close, Cisco shares were up 5% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index had gained about 3%.
WATCH: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on impact of tariffs, AI innovation and future of DEI
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