By Dominique Vidalon and Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters) -This year’s “Choose France” business summit is set to secure 20 billion euros ($22.47 billion) of new investment, French President Emmanuel Macron said, announcing projects in the defence, energy and industrial sectors.
Macron’s personal efforts to woo international business leaders, making the Choose France summits at the opulent Palace of Versailles a must-attend for the global corporate elite, have been credited for a turnaround in past investor perceptions of France as a high-tax, rigid economy.
On top of the 20 billion euros in new investments, details of some 20 billion euros worth of AI-focused projects pledged at an AI summit earlier this year will also be provided at Monday’s summit, Macron said, adding that his aim was to ensure that France, and Europe, are more innovative and competitive.
“We don’t give up on anything!,” Macron said as he announced the pledges expected at the summit. He was speaking at a Daimler Buses site in eastern France, where Chief Executive Till Oberwoerder announced an increase in investment and jobs.
Among the pledges made ahead of the summit, U.S. logistics giant Prologis is set to invest 6.4 billion euros in four data centres in the Paris region, while London-based fintech Revolut plans to invest 1 billion euros over the next three years on expanding in France and will apply for a French banking licence.
Announcements also came from the United Arab Emirates’ AI-focused MGX fund and others were expected from companies ranging from Amazon to Britain’s Less Common Metals Limited in the rare earth sector. Portuguese company Tekever will build a drone assembly factory in the southwest, a 100 million euro investment, the Elysee said.
Macron’s government is under pressure to stem a wave of job cuts in industry, as upheaval fuelled by U.S. President Trump’s trade policies puts further pressure on Europe’s flagging economy.
France has been the leading recipient of international investments in Europe for the past six years, according to EY’s European Investment Monitor, an annual survey of thousands of business leaders that Macron’s advisers have seized on as evidence his cocktail of supply-side reforms have been bearing fruit.
However, this year’s edition shows the number of investment projects has declined for the second consecutive year across Europe, while those in the United States rose by a fifth between 2023 and 2024, which EY said reflected the appeal of the Inflation Reduction Act subsidy package and Trump’s pro-business promises.
Despite the foreign investment flows into France, Macron has failed to stop French companies from making huge investments abroad, with Sanofi’s plan to spend at least $20 billion to boost manufacturing in the United States angering French politicians.
($1 = 0.8899 euros)
(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Ingrid Melander and Sharon Singleton)
