Two of the biggest players in artificial intelligence have chosen to locate their European AI hubs in France.

In a move that is sure to strengthen France’s ambition to become a world leader in AI, both Alphabet’s Google and Facebook have pledged to hire staff and invest in labs in France, after their top executives met with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“France has produced some truly heroic figures of science—like Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Blaise Pascal and Sophie Germain—and its educational system still produces amazing researchers. So it’s only natural that we set up a new research team in Google France around the age’s defining technology: artificial intelligence,” wrote Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai in a blog post.

“Our new research team will work closely with the AI research community in France on issues like health, science, art and the environment. They will publish their research and open-source the code they produce, so that everyone can use these insights to solve their own problems, in their own way.”

Merci @EmmanuelMacron for the warm welcome! We’re excited about opening an AI center here and creating the first of 4 Google Hubs in Brittany, making digital skills training & the benefits of technology more accessible to everyone in France. https://t.co/4kt5yiXbEr https://t.co/58ZCtopLEU — Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) January 22, 2018

Facebook announced that it would be providing a 10m Euro investment in innovation in France through its artificial intelligence research facility.

It also hopes to accelerate AI innovation in France by increasing Facebook AI Research Paris’ PhD fellows from 10 to 40, granting scholarships to students and funding 10 servers as well as open datasets for French public institutions.

In addition to this investment, Facebook will also double its team of researchers and engineers from 30 to 60.

“We believe in France’s potential to be a leader in AI and want to contribute to the resources necessary to accelerate research in France,” said Antoine Bordes, director of AI research in Paris for Facebook, and quoted in the Financial Times.

Google, meanwhile, pledged to increase its staff in France by 50%, bringing its total workforce to more than 1,000 people.

To accommodate the extra staff, the company also said its offices would grow by 6,000 m2, via new buildings connected to its existing office.

The latest deals come just days after it was reported that the UK and France plan to work together and pool industry and academic research on AI.

The two nations will also host a conference later this year to encourage cross-Channel investment.