AI Summit 2026: France's Macron warns against foreign cos turning nations into data market, says 'Jai Ho' India

Addressing the AI Summit, Emmanuel Macron issued a big warning for the nations by saying that no country should be reduced to merely serving as a market for foreign players to sell their AI models and extract citizens’ data.

"India built something that no other country in the world has built. A digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month. A health infrastructure that has issued 500 million digital health IDs. Here are the results. They call it the India Stack Open Interoperable Sovereign. That is what this summit is about. We are clearly at the beginning of a huge acceleration, and you perfectly described it during your interventions..." said French President Emmanuel Macron.

"India trains hundreds of thousands of AI engineers every year. With 500,000 engineers, India is the second largest developer community in the world," said the president in Delhi. "In France, we are doubling the number of AI scientists and engineers trained, and with now more than 11 AI startups thriving in France, creating dozens of jobs."


In his address, Macron told a global artificial intelligence summit in India on Thursday he was determined to ensure safe oversight of the fast-evolving technology.

The European Union has led the way for global regulation with its Artificial Intelligence Act, which was adopted in 2024 and is coming into force in phases.

"We are determined to continue to shape the rules of the game... with our allies such as India," Macron said in New Delhi.

"Europe is not blindly focused on regulation -- Europe is a space for innovation and investment, but it is a safe space."

At last year's AI summit in Paris, US Vice President JD Vance had warned against "excessive regulation" that "could kill a transformative sector".

Under EU laws, regulators can ban AI systems deemed to pose "unacceptable risks" to society, such as identifying people in real time using cameras in public spaces.

Macron, speaking at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, said France was "doubling the number of AI scientists and engineers trained", with new startups in the sector creating "dozens of thousands" of jobs.

Last month, French lawmakers passed a bill that would ban social media use for under-15s, which awaits a Senate vote before becoming law, following a similar ban enacted by Australia in December.

"One of our G7 priorities will be, as well, children's protection against AI and digital abuse," Macron said Thursday.

"There is no reason our children should be exposed online to what is legally forbidden in the real world," he said.

France is "committed here in this journey" with several European countries, Macron said, adding that he knows India "will join this club".

"Protecting our children is not regulation, as well. It is civilization," he said.