In her Paris AI Summit speech, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, made several misleading claims about the EU’s AI investments.

She announced a €10 billion public AI Factories initiative, but the actual figure is €1.96 billion, with €980 million from EU funds matched by member states. The €10 billion figure includes €7 billion from pre-2021 public-private scientific computing commitments and €3 billion in expected private investments, none of which are directly tied to the AI Factories initiative.

Von der Leyen also touted the €10 billion as “the largest public investment for AI in the world,” but this claim is inflated, as much of the funding is not new or AI-specific. Additionally, her €50 billion InvestAI initiative, aimed at creating a public-private partnership for trustworthy AI, lacks clarity and concrete commitments.

The Commission’s breakdown of the €10 billion reveals that only €2 billion is dedicated to AI-specific infrastructure, with the rest tied to unrelated scientific computing and indirect costs. Von der Leyen’s statements appear to exaggerate the EU’s AI funding efforts, raising questions about the accuracy and transparency of her claims.