Paris-based Capgemini to invest 2 bn euro in artificial intelligence

Paris-headquartered IT services and consulting firm Capgemini announced that it will invest 2 billion euro in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The company also said that it plans to double its data and AI teams to 60,000 in the next three years.

The announcement was made as part of the firm's Q2 2023 and half-yearly results.

Aiman Ezzat, CEO of the Capgemini Group, said that the group will invest 2 billion euro in AI to build its leadership in this breakthrough technology, which must be deployed responsibly, reliably, and sustainably.

“We are developing a portfolio of industry-specific offers and signing strategic partnerships, notably with Google Cloud and Microsoft, while training most of our workforce through our Data & AI Campus to fully leverage the power of generative AI in our operations,” he said in a statement.

The announcement is of importance for India as the company has a large presence in the country. It employs 180,000 across 13 cities in India. The company is now setting up a new 500-seat office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) and building modernised infrastructure at the Talwade campus in Pune, which will be expanded multifold upon completion.

More importantly, Capgemini’s India business is also the group’s largest platform for innovation and delivery. In addition to a 5G Lab in Mumbai, Capgemini has recently set up a 6G research Lab in Gurugram to build advanced testbeds, simulators, and energy-saving solutions while exploring the use cases for the next generation of wireless networks.

The announcement of investing huge capital in AI comes after similar such announcements made by Accenture and Wipro.

Accenture announced an investment of $3 billion in data and AI over the next three years. Wipro too, said that it will invest $1 billion to advance AI capabilities over the next three years.

Quarter performance

Meanwhile, Capgemini reported revenue for the second quarter of CY2023 at 5.69 billion euro.

Capgemini generated revenues of 11.42 billion euro in H1 2023, up 6.9 per cent on a reported basis and +7.9 per cent at constant exchange rates. Organic growth (i.e., excluding the impacts of currency fluctuations and changes in group scope) is 7.3 per cent.

After two years of record growth, the more challenging macro-economic environment led to a slowdown in line with Group expectations, said the company. Capgemini's growth in the second quarter was, therefore, lower than in the first, reaching 5.2 per cent at constant exchange rates and 4.7 per cent on an organic basis.

Bookings reached 6.1 billion euro in the second quarter. Given the particularly demanding comparison base, this represents an increase of 1 per cent at constant exchange rates. The book-to-bill ratio of 1.07 is above last year’s average for a Q2.