France and India are competing to attract the money and machines that power artificial intelligence, and their leaders are getting personally involved.
According to CNBC, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India have launched what it describes as "personal charm offensives," courting technology CEOs as each country races to secure AI investment.
The prize both leaders are chasing, per CNBC, is investment in AI data centers and cloud infrastructure. These are the physical foundations of the AI boom: sprawling, power-hungry facilities packed with specialized computer chips that train and run AI models, plus the cloud services that deliver that computing power to businesses and consumers.
CNBC frames the effort as a race, with France and India both trying to position themselves as attractive destinations for the companies deciding where to build. Because these facilities require enormous capital and long-term commitments, winning a single major project can anchor a country's ambitions for years.
The reporting centers on the leaders' hands-on approach. Rather than leaving the pitch to trade officials, Macron and Modi are personally engaging the executives who control where this infrastructure gets built.
Why it matters: Where AI infrastructure gets built shapes which countries hold economic and technological influence in the coming decade, so the competition between France and India to court these CEOs is a contest over the future geography of AI power.