Synthesia

Macron and Modi court tech CEOs for AI investment

French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi have personally ramped up outreach to major technology CEOs to secure large-scale AI investments. France has persuaded SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to commit to multi‑billion euro AI data center projects (SoftBank announced plans for 3.1 GW in France by 2031 as part of a 75‑billion‑euro program). India hosted a Global AI summit and welcomed major commitments from hyperscalers, including Amazon’s record $48 billion investment in India (about $21 billion for AI and cloud infrastructure), Microsoft’s largest investment in Asia, and Google’s multibillion plans. India is also pursuing semiconductor capacity (ASML agreed to supply lithography tools for a 300mm fab with Tata Electronics). The diplomatic push aims to attract cloud, data‑center and chip investments to build national AI infrastructure as the U.S. and China remain ahead in the AI race.

Seedcamp raises $320M fund to expand U.S. footprint

Seedcamp has raised $320 million for its largest fund to date and will expand its presence in the United States. The total is split between a $220 million vehicle (Seedcamp VII) for early-stage investments and a new $100 million growth fund called Select for follow-on investments. Seedcamp plans to scale its U.S. team from existing New York City and Miami offices to better connect European portfolio companies with U.S. customers and investors. The firm intends to write roughly $1 million initial checks into about 100–120 startups from Seedcamp VII and $3–5 million follow-on checks from Select in Series B and later rounds. Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp co-founder and managing partner, said the firm will remain sector-agnostic but avoid capital-intensive models. LPs named include British Business Bank, HarborVest, Schroders and Sofina, alongside participation from around 80 portfolio founders.

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google CEOs Join G7 Summit

Chief executives from leading AI labs — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis — attended a working lunch with G7 leaders in Evian on June 17, 2026. The meeting is framed as a sign of the growing geopolitical influence of frontier AI companies. Discussion topics at the summit include frontier AI risks (including cyber capabilities), AI infrastructure and sovereignty, and child online protection. The article notes recent controversies such as U.S. export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable models and references recent powerful model releases (Anthropic’s Mythos, OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 Cyber). Tech leaders are expected to pursue voluntary commitments on youth safety and frontier risks ahead of binding regulation.