France's Macron invites Sam Altman to attend G7, OpenAI tells CNBC

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is set to attend the upcoming G7 conference in France later this month. This participation comes as President Emmanuel Macron intensifies his outreach to technology leaders worldwide to bolster the nation’s ambitions in artificial intelligence. Scheduled from June 15-17, the G7 summit will prioritize discussions on AI, marking the first time Altman will take part in this high-profile gathering. According to Chris Lehane, OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer, Altman is expected to engage deeply in conversations with world leaders during the summit. The G7, which includes representatives from the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the EU, is a prime platform for addressing global issues. Recently, Macron has been actively courting tech innovators. Just this past weekend, SoftBank announced plans to invest approximately 45 billion euros (around $53 billion) over the next five years to enhance AI infrastructure within France, following Macron's direct engagement with SoftBank's founder, Masayoshi Son. During their discussions, Macron urged Son to establish a data center in France, with the SoftBank CEO revealing that the two had exchanged messages to finalize the details. OpenAI anticipates that significant voluntary commitments from tech companies will emerge from discussions at the summit. Lehane highlighted that while youth safety remains a top priority for Altman at the G7, the broader conversation has shifted from theoretical discussions about AI to addressing it as a current reality. In late May, G7 digital ministers had already agreed on a collaborative strategy aimed at safeguarding children online. Additionally, OpenAI plans to focus on addressing risks associated with advanced AI technologies, particularly concerning cyber security and bioethics. The emergence of powerful AI models with sophisticated cyber capabilities, such as Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 Cyber, has raised significant concerns regarding digital security vulnerabilities among businesses and governments alike. OpenAI is increasingly positioning itself as a strategic ally to governments, having launched its "OpenAI for Countries" initiative in 2025. This initiative aims to assist nations in developing data center capabilities and deploying ChatGPT to their citizens. The effort will be spearheaded by former UK Chancellor George Osborne. In an effort to strengthen France's AI ecosystem, the annual business summit Choose France recently led to several multi-billion dollar investments from tech and data center firms. Notably, the United Arab Emirates fund MGX and France's public investment bank, Bpifrance, announced a joint investment of 7.5 billion euros into a new AI campus in France, with Salesforce also committing 2 billion euros. As the summit approaches, questions remain about the attendance of other tech leaders, including whether executives from Google or Anthropic will be present. The Élysée Palace has yet to respond to inquiries regarding these developments.