World leaders and Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives shared a meal in the French Alps on June 17, and the menu was artificial intelligence. The working lunch at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains brought together heads of state, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, with CEOs from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic.
The gathering capped a three-day summit that ran from June 15-17, 2026. Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis were among the tech leaders seated across from the politicians who will ultimately decide how their products get regulated.
What was actually on the table
The lunch centered on a handful of themes that have been simmering in policy circles for months. Safe deployment of increasingly powerful AI systems topped the list, alongside the question of how to balance innovation with ethical guardrails.
But the subtext was geopolitical. European leaders have grown increasingly vocal about US dominance in AI, and the concept of “tech sovereignty” loomed over the conversation. France, as host nation, had a clear interest in framing the discussion around Europe’s ability to compete rather than simply comply.
