Brookfield Invests €20 billion in France’s AI Infrastructure

AI | Feb 11, 2025

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Brookfield Backs France's AI Ecosystem

The chips are beginning to fall in the global AI race to build the infrastructure needed to power future artificial intelligence breakthroughs. The U.S. recently launched a $500 billion USD AI infrastructure Stargate project. Yesterday, at the AI Action Summit in Paris, France announced a €109 billion ($112.5 billion USD) in private sector AI investments led by major players including one of Canada's largest investment firms, Brookfield Asset Management who contributed €20 billion euro and many other large investors including the UAE and U.S. funds, highlighting France's strategic push to position itself as Europe's AI leader.

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France has been aggressively marketing itself as a prime AI destination. The country offers cheap nuclear power, strong government incentives, and a clear AI strategy. Energy supply is a major factor given that AI data centers consumer massive amounts of electricity, and France's nuclear powered grid offers a stable, low cost energy source.  While its great for France, Canada struggles to attract similar investments at home ("money holds no loyalty except to money")

What’s Happening with AI Infrastructure in Canada?

Canada has been making efforts to strengthen its AI infrastructure pitch but so far investments can't match what's happening in France or the U.S.  In April 2024, the Canadian government announced a $2.4 billion CAD AI investment package to support AI infrastructure, research, and commercialization.

In December 2024, they committed $240 million to Toronto-based AI leader Cohere to help expand its AI compute capacity. Cohere is also leading private sector efforts with plans to develop a multi-billion dollar AI data center in Canada in partnership with CoreWeave.

Part of the $2.4 billion AI package includes $700 million for the 'AI Compute Challenge', a call for proposals from industry, academia and private groups to strengthen Canada's AI ecosystem by developing domestic AI data centers, and to encourage private sector investment.

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Despite Canada's abundant hydropower and renewable energy sources, it has not fully leveraged this advantage to attract AI infrastructure investments. The federal government has also proposed up to $15 billion in incentives to encourage the development of green AI data centers while looking to capitalize on Canada's clean energy potential but the effectiveness of this proposal in attracting large private sector investments has not yet materialized.

There's also interest from Canadian bitcoin minor Bitfarms who is exploring repurposing its North American facilities for AI data centers to meet the growing demand for AI training.

Risk of Data Sovereignty

Many Canadian AI companies rely on U.S. cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure for high performance computing needs.  However, this dependence raises concerns about data sovereignty, as sensitive information is processed outside Canada. Ensuring that data is stored and managed within Canada is paramount for maintaining control over AI research and development, and data privacy.

Conclusion

If Canada doesn’t act now, it risks becoming a research hub that feeds AI innovation in other countries rather than building its own AI leadership.  Will Brookfield and other investment and pension funds support Canada's AI infrastructure?  Will industry leaders like Cohere become successful enough to challenge global competitors?  Canada needs to get its economy back on track and create the right investment incentives or continue watching AI investments to flow elsewhere.

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