French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are taking an unconventional approach to building sovereign AI capabilities: they're personally meeting with tech CEOs to secure massive infrastructure investments. Rather than relying on traditional government channels, both leaders have stepped up direct outreach to executives at companies like SoftBank, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, securing commitments worth tens of billions of dollars for data centers, cloud infrastructure, and chip development in their countries.

What Makes This Personal Diplomacy Strategy Different?

While many countries are scrambling to develop the data centers and computing ecosystems needed to power artificial intelligence, Macron and Modi stand out for their reliance on personal relationships with global tech leaders. This approach has proven remarkably effective. Macron personally convinced SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son to invest tens of billions of dollars into AI data centers in France, with the two exchanging texts to hash out details. "His team, the government team is very supportive," Son told CNBC. "His team and our team work in collaboration very well."

Modi has similarly leveraged personal meetings with tech executives. He met with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last week to welcome the company's "record $48 billion investment" in India, of which $21 billion will go toward AI and cloud infrastructure. Modi previously met with Microsoft chair and CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, with all of them committing to help develop India's AI ecosystem.

How Are These Leaders Securing Massive AI Investments?

• Leveraging National Advantages: Macron touted France's abundant nuclear power capacity to convince SoftBank to commit to 3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity instead of the initially proposed 2 gigawatts. SoftBank announced plans to build 3.1 GW of AI data centers in France by 2031 as part of a 75-billion-euro program to roll out 5 GW of total AI data center capacity.
• Hosting High-Profile Summits: Macron invited major AI CEOs to a working lunch with world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, at the G7 conference in June. Attendees included OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and leaders from companies like Mistral, Cohere, Synthesia, and Black Forest Labs.
• Offering Tax Incentives and Support: Modi's government has offered long-term tax breaks to hyperscalers building AI data centers in India and is encouraging local companies to develop semiconductors domestically. During Modi's visit to the Netherlands in May, Dutch firm ASML agreed to supply advanced lithography tools for a 300-millimeter semiconductor fabrication plant being set up by Indian firm Tata Electronics.

Modi hosted top U.S. tech leaders at India's Global AI summit in February, leading to commitments of hundreds of billions of dollars into Indian AI efforts. At the summit, Modi declared: "India does not see fear in AI. India sees fortune in AI. India sees the future in AI," urging global tech leaders to "Design and Develop in India" to deliver to the world.

Modi

Why Are These Countries So Eager to Build Sovereign AI?

Both France and India recognize that the U.S. and China remain ahead in AI development, and other countries risk being left behind without their own infrastructure and capabilities. India's situation is particularly urgent. The country does not yet produce cutting-edge chips domestically, nor does it have a frontier-scale foundation model comparable to leading U.S. or Chinese models, making it widely seen as a laggard in the global AI race.

India's reliance on foreign AI models and computing hardware makes its AI ambitions vulnerable to export control directives from other countries. This vulnerability has made Modi's push to attract capital and technology investment all the more critical. The recent global AI stocks rally has completely skipped India due to the lack of any large-scale domestic AI play, underscoring the urgency of Modi's efforts.

Microsoft's largest investment in Asia and Google's $15 billion commitment to build its largest AI hub outside the U.S. demonstrate how personal diplomacy and government support can attract major tech investments. Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who met Modi in December, also signed up as a prospective buyer for chips made by Tata Electronics, signaling confidence in India's semiconductor ambitions.

The contrast between Macron and Modi's approach and that of other countries highlights a broader truth: in the race for sovereign AI capabilities, personal relationships and government-industry collaboration may matter as much as raw capital or technical talent. By personally engaging with tech leaders, both presidents have positioned their countries as serious contenders in the global AI competition, securing commitments that will shape their technological futures for years to come.