The EU is creating a new multi-billion state fund to increase investment in Europe's technology sector to allow it to compete with the US and Asia,  French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, Reuters reported.

He said European technology startups need a much higher level of funding if Europe wants to reduce its dependence on foreign technology giants. He added that he would elaborate on the new fund Tuesday with his German counterpart Christian Lindner, saying the fund would finance 10 to 20 funds "at a minimum value of one billion euros to finance tech champions."

"Our ultimate target is to have 10 technology companies worth more than 100 billion euros each by 2030," Le Maire said as he opened a conference on digital sovereignty.

European venture capital funds are too small to be able to fund the development of European tech startups, so they have no choice but to turn to much larger US funds.

Meanwhile, many US and Chinese tech firms have received government funding at some point in their development, which has been more difficult for European firms in the past because of strict EU state aid rules.