France’s artificial intelligence sector will receive 109 billion euros ($112.6 billion) of private investment in the “coming years,” President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday ahead of the country’s global AI summit.

Speaking with French broadcaster TF1, Macron described the multibillion-euro pledge as “the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate,” referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive $500 billion private AI investment project.

The U.S. joint venture, dubbed Stargate, will see OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank spend up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure in America over the next four years.

Meanwhile, the French financing will include commitments from the United Arab Emirates, American and Canadian investments funds and French companies like telecommunications firms Iliad and Orange, and aerospace and defense group Thales.

A few days before France’s AI Action Summit, which kicked off on Monday, the UAE said it would invest between 30 billion euros and 50 billion euros in the construction of a one-gigawatt AI data center in France as part of a campus focused on the technology’s development.

Iliad committed to spending 3 billion euros on AI infrastructure, while Paris-based AI firm Mistral announced plans to invest billions to build its own data center in France.

Victor Riparbelli, CEO of British AI startup Synthesia, said Macron’s 109-billion-euro investment plan was a “great” thing for the European AI ecosystem — but added that more is needed to ensure the continent is able to compete with tech heavyweights like the U.S. and China.

“We need to set the right foundations for Europe to thrive as an ecosystem,” Riparbelli told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal Monday.

“It’s great that we invest more in infrastructure. I don’t think it’s the sole solution to the problem. There’s lots of other things we need to worry about as well. But what I think is really great, is there’s political will to actually do something,” he added.

Big-name attendees include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, EU President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft President Brad Smith, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Elon Musk is currently not slated to attend.

On Saturday, Axios reported that OpenAI’s Altman will this week warn world leaders they need to widen their AI mindset so that, rather than just focusing on risk — as has often been the case in Europe — leaders will instead look to embrace growth and opportunity.

The emergence of Chinese firm DeepSeek’s breakthrough open-source AI model R1 in recent weeks has stirred debates in the industry around the huge capital expenditures companies are committing toward computing infrastructure to train their systems.

DeepSeek said total training costs for its newest AI model amounted to $5.6 million. However, doubts have been raised about DeepSeek’s claims.

Last month, semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis estimated that DeepSeek’s hardware spend is higher than $500 million over the company’s history, adding that the startup’s research and development and ownership costs are significant.

On Sunday, Google DeepMind’s Hassabis said DeepSeek’s AI model is “probably the best work” he’s seen out of China — but added that, from a technology point of view, it was not a big change.

“Despite the hype, there’s no actual new scientific advance … it’s using known techniques [in AI],” Hassabis said, adding that the hype around Deepseek has been “exaggerated a little bit.”

Nevertheless, with companies spending billions on data centers filled with advanced semiconductors from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, DeepSeek’s new model has led to worries of a potential bubble in the AI space.

Ahead of the AI summit, Mike Capone, CEO of U.S. software firm Qlik, told CNBC that DeepSeek is likely to be a major discussion point this week as world governments grapple with China’s AI advances.

“This summit isn’t just about AI—it’s about influence,” Capone told CNBC on Friday. “Expect a strategic messaging war as U.S., French, and UK AI leaders downplay DeepSeek’s relevance while China works to prove it’s not just catching up — it’s setting the pace.”

“AI diplomacy is now as critical as AI development. The power struggle won’t be about who builds the best model; it’ll be about who controls the AI narrative,” he added.

– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report

Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, has signed a term sheet to raise capital at a $28 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is planning to raise up to $2.5 billion in the round, said the people who asked not to be named because the details are confidential. The latest funding would double Anduril’s valuation from August.

Anduril, the three-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company that ranked No. 2 in 2024, aims to disrupt traditional defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by developing its own products and selling them to clients, in contrast to the traditional military process of contracting and then building.

An Anduril spokesperson declined to comment.

Luckey, who sold virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, has been a public supporter of Donald Trump since long before the president’s return to the White House.

“I’ve been on the tech-for-Trump train for longer than just about anyone,” Luckey, who started the company in 2017, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Nov. 6, right after Trump’s election victory. “The idea that we need to be the strongest military in the world is really non-partisan.”

In December, Anduril announced a partnership with artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, allowing the defense tech company to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

It’s part of a broader and controversial trend of AI companies walking back bans on military use of their products and entering into partnerships with defense companies and the U.S. Department of Defense. In December, Anthropic and Palantir announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to “provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access” to Anthropic’s AI models.

While Anduril is still privately held, Palantir, which sells software and services to defense agencies, is publicly traded and has been one of the best performers on the stock market in the past year, jumping 370% over that stretch, lifting its market cap past $250 billion. The company reported in its latest earnings report this week that government revenue jumped 45% from a year earlier to $343 million.

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is leading the latest Anduril financing, with a $1 billion commitment, sources said, the largest check ever for the firm. Thiel, who was a major Trump supporter in the 2016 campaign, is one of Palantir’s co-founders. Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund, is an Anduril co-founder.

Anduril’s revenue in 2024 doubled to about $1 billion and annual contract value reached $1.5 billion, the people said.

In 2023, Anduril launched several new drones that rely on its Lattice AI-powered command and control software used by the U.S. military and allies to direct human-assisted robotics systems to perform complex missions. 

WATCH: Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey talks what a Trump White House means for defense tech

Hims & Hers is facing scrutiny from lawmakers over what they claim is a “misleading” advertisement for its weight loss offerings that’s slated to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) wrote a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday expressing concerns over an “upcoming advertisement” that “risks misleading patients by omitting any safety or side effect information when promoting a specific type of weight loss medication.”

The Hims & Hers ad, which the company released online in late January, is called “Sick of the System” and sharply criticizes the $160 billion dollar weight loss industry. It shows visuals of existing weight loss medications known as GLP-1s, including injection pens that look like Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic.

The ad claims those drugs are “priced for profits, not patients,” and points to Hims & Hers’ weight loss medications as “affordable” and “doctor-trusted” alternatives.

“We are complying with existing law and are happy to continue working with Congress and the new Administration to fix the broken health system and ensure that patients have choices for quality, safe, and affordable healthcare,” a Hims & Hers spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.

The senators do not mention Hims & Hers by name in their letter, but they do reference some of the visuals in the ad, including “imagery of an injection pen with distinctive characteristics reflective of an existing brand-name medication.”

“Nowhere in this promotion is there any side effect disclosure, risk, or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement,” the senators wrote. “Further, for only three seconds during the minute-long commercial does the screen flash in small, barely legible font, that these products are not FDA-approved.”

Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide through its platform in May after launching a new weight loss program in late 2023. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which can each cost around $1,000 a month without insurance.

Shares of Hims & Hers jumped over 170% last year, thanks to soaring demand for GLP-1s. They rose another 8% on Friday, lifting the company’s market cap to about $9.5 billion.

Compounded GLP-1s are typically much cheaper and can serve as an alternative for patients that are navigating complex supply hurdles and spotty insurance coverage. Hims & Hers sells compounded semaglutide for under $200 a month.

The FDA doesn’t review the safety and efficacy of compounded products, which are custom-made alternatives to brand drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs. Compounded products can also be produced when brand-name treatments are in shortage.

Semaglutide is currently in shortage, according to the FDA.

Sens. Durbin and Marshall said that advertisements for brand-name GLP-1 medications include “significant risk disclosures to patients about side effects and contraindications, including warnings about potential gallbladder, pancreas, vomiting, diarrhea, and other implications.”

A release on Durbin’s website says that the ad in question appears to exploit a loophole “regarding promotions of compounded drugs by telehealth companies.”

The senators said they believe the FDA may have the authority to take enforcement actions against marketing that could mislead patients, and they plan to introduce new legislation to address regulatory loopholes.

WATCH: New study reveals why patients stop taking GLP-1 obesity drugs