Publicis chief urges France, Germany to lead European AI fund

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)