ALBAWABA - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with AFP that France and the United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi business Mubadala inked a "strategic partnership" on artificial intelligence (AI) on Tuesday with the purpose of increasing the level of cooperation between the two countries.
Le Maire stated that the the deal struck with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, now serving as the managing director of the Mubadala fund, managed by the Abu Dhabi government would open "a new era of economic cooperation" in the rapidly developing sector.
"France has chosen to be the leading country in Europe on AI, and for that, we need partners," the minister noted during a visit to Abu Dhabi alongside an entourage of executives from companies and startups, according to AFP, adding that “Four new areas of cooperation will be opened and developed in the coming months.”
Following the forming of the strategic collaboration with the Gulf state on artificial intelligence, France's finance minister said on Tuesday that the country is open to the possibility of the United Arab Emirates funding its nuclear energy and artificial intelligence sectors, according to Reuters, which reports that Abu Dhabi is interested in making investments in the nuclear power business in Europe.
The foundation of France's relationship with the UAE would be the concept of sovereignty, which states that important technology and expertise should stay in the hands of the countries who invented them.
Le Maire added that France and the UAE could work together to make investments in information processing and cloud computing, stating that the strategic alliance would result in more researchers and scientists collaborating at the Paris Sorbonne's Abu Dhabi site.
