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.
