French President Emmanuel Macron said foreign companies have pledged a total of €93 billion worth of investments at the annual "Choose France" summit on Monday, particularly for AI and data projects. The conference could see announcements on rare earth investments in France.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said companies have pledged a total of €93 billion ($108 billion) worth of investments in France at this year's "Choose France" summit, covering 71 projects and expected to create more than 15,600 jobs.
The total includes €45 billion from Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank for a project to provide 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031, with the investment potentially rising to €75 billion, he added. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is to meet Macron at the Élysée Palace on Monday.
Amazon plans to invest more than €15 billion on three new logistics sites in France that are expected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs over three years, the retail giant announced Monday, in addition to the more than 7,000 jobs already promised by the company in early May. Amazon told AFP the new sites would consist of two delivery stations and a distribution centre.
Some 200 top executives from around the world are expected at Versailles palace west of Paris for President Emmanuel Macron's annual foreign investment event. The 2025 conference set a record of €20 billion ($23.3 billion) in announced projects.
Watch'Choose France' summit to kick off as factory closures multiply
According to business daily Les Echos, Canadian asset manager Brookfield is to announce $10 billion of investment in a data centre in the Escaudain area of northern France.
Investment firm Ardian and Nordic data platform Verne will put $5 billion into a data centre in the Paris region, it added.
Taiwanese group Foxconn is expected to invest €120 million in the western city of Angers for a production line for motherboards dedicated to AI in partnership with French supercomputer specialist Bull, sources told AFP.
The conference could also see announcements on rare earths.
Since the first "Choose France" in 2018, a year after Macron came to power, more than 230 projects have been announced, representing some €87 billion and several thousand jobs, according to the Élysée.
France has attracted the most foreign investment in Europe for seven straight years, according to the consultancy EY, but Macron said it "does not come out of thin air".
EY said France attracted 852 projects last year out of 5,026 recorded in 47 European countries – a 17 percent drop in a difficult international environment.
The country has notably attracted more projects linked to AI than anywhere else in Europe but industry has suffered, particularly the cars, chemical and metallurgy sectors.
Economist Sylvain Bersinger said the announcements in Versailles "must not obscure the fact that overall corporate investment in France is depressed, that reindustrialisation remains more of a pious wish than a reality, and that France does not necessarily appear more attractive for foreign investors than its neighbours".
Macron wants to make France a world leader in AI and has announced €1.55 billion of public investment to develop quantum technologies and semiconductors.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
