First part of a series of article on French AI Policy that I’m currently writing as part of the Inkhaven Residency.

For three centuries, France has stood among the great powers of the world, and there it wants to stay. Now, far from the heyday of La Belle Époque, where the French Empire stood shoulder to shoulder with the British Empire, France has resisted the pressures to align too closely with the world superpowers, lest it become just a vassal state. French pride mandates that French sovereignty must be preserved.

As World War II came to an end, the two blocs of the Cold War emerged. Despite the pressures to align, France was not willing to trust the US security guarantees. It needed a seat at the table. France secured its own permanent seat at the UN security council in 1945, its own nuclear weapons in 1960, and its energy independence through nuclear power in the 70s, even withdrawing from part of NATO in 1966. It seems that history may have proven them right; as Trump hints that the US might not come to defend Europe, France stands secure with its own nuclear deterrence force, even suggesting France might become Europe’s nuclear umbrella.

This independence from the US gave France the freedom to pursue its national interests, even when they conflicted with US priorities. The most prominent case being the 2003 Iraq war, where France decided to not support the US proposal at the UN Security Council, to the stupefaction of American foreign policy experts. Even this year, France went against the US position and decided to recognize the Palestinian State ahead of the UN General Assembly. Closer to home, France has regularly contested proposed EU policies that would put its sovereignty at risk, like the proposed EU-wide arms procurement, which allow spending EU money on US weapons.

The importance of sovereignty is key to understanding France’s positions on AI. French elites have correctly understood that AI is becoming one of the most strategically important resources of this century, and they have seen how the US has already started weaponizing its dominance of the AI supply chain for its policy objectives.

This has led France to invest heavily into securing its access to compute, both through building a sovereign semiconductor supply chain in Europe, and through €100B+ of investment in AI datacenters build-out, including a partnership with the UAE to build a 1GW datacenter.

On the algorithmic side, France has chosen Mistral as its national champion, which it has supported both through direct investments, and through attacking the provisions of the EU AI Act targeting systemic risks from general purpose AI. The open-source strategy is not a whim, it’s a key part of Mistral’s value proposition, an AI provider that is European, sovereign, and taking a stand against the power centralization of American Big Tech.

Through continuous investment into its sovereignty, France has remained a strong and independent live player. While it may key its usual alignment with US positions, it will not accept a US hegemony over the AI era. France has proved time and time again that it will stand alone if it needs to.