Societe Generale Unveils €1.9 Billion AI Cost-Cutting Plan Through 2029, Signs Deal With Anthropic

Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed bank, unveiled a strategic roadmap on Monday, September 21, aimed at pushing its cost base below €16.3 billion by 2029, a roughly 2% cut from 2026 estimated levels, according to the bank's own statement and Reuters reporting carried by Global Banking and Finance Review.

Artificial intelligence is doing much of the work. The bank expects AI initiatives to deliver €500 million to €600 million in savings, with roughly €350 million already identified, according to BigGo Finance. The €1.9 billion in gross savings the bank is targeting nets out to about €300 million after absorbing roughly €1 billion in inflation and €600 million in new investment.

CEO Slawomir Krupa, who took over in 2023, called it a new phase built on "rigorous risk and cost discipline," per his statement cited by Reuters. His first plan, unveiled in September 2023, landed badly and sent shares tumbling. This one arrives after SocGen shares have nearly tripled since early 2025, outpacing the STOXX Europe 600 banks index, though the bank's market cap of €53.08 billion, per TipRanks, remains less than half BNP Paribas' valuation.

The Anthropic Bet, After SoGPT Flopped

SocGen's AI path has not been a straight line. The bank built its own internal tool, SoGPT, then quietly decommissioned it earlier in 2026 in favor of Microsoft's Copilot after what Crypto Briefing described as performance gaps. The bank has signed a strategic partnership with Anthropic, the maker of Claude, to push AI deeper into its operations and client services.

The bank is targeting a cost-to-income ratio below 55% by 2029, down from a current 60% goal, and a return on tangible equity of 13% to 14% in 2029, rising above 15% in 2030 and beyond, up from roughly 11% expected this year, according to the company's own release. Revenue is projected to grow about 3% annually. Roughly 1,800 roles in France will be cut, primarily through natural attrition rather than layoffs, Reuters reported.

Shareholders are being promised more than €21 billion in returns through 2029, split between dividends and buybacks, with ordinary distributions expected to exceed €13 billion and up to roughly €8 billion in excess capital distribution on top, according to BigGo Finance and the bank's own disclosures.

The Company Behind the Deal Is Also Fighting Washington Over AI Rules

Anthropic's willingness to sign productivity deals with banks sits awkwardly next to its public warnings about AI risk. Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told Fox News' Bret Baier that President Trump's dismissal of industry safety warnings as a "hoax" is a mistake, arguing the U.S. needs "a sensible, common-sense safety framework" before an accident forces heavier-handed restrictions that could hand China an opening. Clark rejected the idea that Anthropic's safety push is a financial play, calling that theory "an absurd 4D chess move."

Not everyone in the industry agrees regulation is the answer. Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl told Fox News that companies, not the government, should bear responsibility for what they ship, comparing a rogue AI model to a manufacturer's defect rather than a case for blanket restrictions. Senate negotiators are weighing legislation that would impose a "duty of care" standard on advanced AI developers, a middle path between Clark's safety-first framing and Scholl's product-liability approach.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, also on Fox News, focused on a different problem: the physical footprint of the AI boom. He argued communities need contractual protections from "trillion-dollar" companies building data centers that strain local water and power supplies.

States Are Already Paying the Bill

Gingrich's concern is already playing out at the state level. Ohio's sales-tax exemption for data-center equipment cost the state more than $1.5 billion last year, more than ten times what officials originally projected, according to the Wall Street Journal as reported by Breitbart. Governor Mike DeWine paused new applications for the exemption in May. Ohio state Rep. Tristan Rader wants to repeal it outright and renegotiate existing deals with Amazon, Meta and Google, saying those companies "seem to have more money than God" and don't need the subsidy.

Ohio isn't unique. New Jersey's state Senate voted unanimously in 2024 to approve a $500 million data-center tax credit, then reversed course 35-4 last month to cancel the remaining $250 million, per Breitbart. More than ten states, including Illinois and Washington, have pulled back similar breaks, while industry advisers warn projects could simply relocate to Indiana, West Virginia or Wyoming, states still offering favorable terms.

Banks and companies are chasing AI-driven efficiency while the public infrastructure underneath it gets more expensive and more politically contested. SocGen's targets give investors concrete numbers to hold Krupa to by 2029. Whether U.S. states settle on a stable tax framework for the data centers powering tools like Claude and Copilot remains an open question moving through more than a dozen state legislatures.