France won a record 15 billion euros ($16.17 billion) in foreign investment pledges on Monday, allowing President Emmanuel Macron to bask in the limelight with global CEOs and forget about strained public finances and weak polls for a while.
\nThe bumper crop of pledges, in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to pharmaceuticals and energy, stood Macron in good stead as he hosted business leaders for the annual \u201cChoose France\u201d summit at Versailles Palace.
\nThis year\u2019s figure is up from 13 billion euros announced in 2023.
\nThe French presidency said the investments included 56 different business projects and could lead to the creation of 10,000 jobs.
\nMicrosoftMSFT.O said it would invest 4 billion euros in France in its cloud and AI infrastructure, expanding its centres in Paris and Marseilles and adding a new data centre in the eastern city of Mulhouse.
\nOver the weekend, France said AmazonAMZN.O would announce a 1.2-billion-euro investment at the event, to boost its logistics as well as Amazon Web Services\u2019 (AWS) cloud infrastructure.
\nFrance is positioning itself as a European AI hub and the investments will help build the data infrastructure critical to support fast-growing, home-grown start-ups like Mistral AI.
\nMicrosoft President Brad Smith said that the investment reflected France\u2019s commitment to a low-carbon energy programme and Macron\u2019s business reforms.
\n\u201cSometimes when we turn on the television we get the impression that nothing\u2019s going well in France. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s true,\u201d Macron said alongside Smith at an event unveiling the Microsoft investment.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that\u2019s working and we don\u2019t pay enough attention to our considerable advantages.\u201d
\nMacron\u2019s administration has taken flack from opposition parties over public finances after missing its deficit target and warning this year\u2019s fiscal shortfall would be bigger than expected.
\nThough traditionally strong on economic issues, that has left his party on a weak footing heading into EU parliamentary elections in June with the far-right far ahead in the polls.
\nGovernment officials did not give details on what public financial and other support were offered, but the state offers tax credits for certain types of green investments and research and development.
\nProjects aligning with public priorities like hydrogen or computer chips often qualify for grants while local governments frequently make land available to foreign investors.
\nFinance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the foreign investments were the fruit of government efforts over the last seven years to cut corporate taxes, which far-left parties say have been far too generous.
\nAmong other groups planning to boost their presence in France, drug companies Pfizer PFE.N, AstraZeneca AZN.L, Novartis and GSK GSK.L announced investments together worth over $1 billion.
\nEstonian high-power energy storage firm Skeleton Technologies pledged to invest 600 million euros over five years and create 300 jobs.
\nSpain-based fertiliser group FertigHy planned to invest 1.3 billion euros in a low-emission hydrogen-based plant in northern France, creating 250 jobs.
\nChina\u2019s Hunan Changyuan Lico 688779.SS, South Korean group Enchem348370.KQand Swiss firm KL1 are due to make investments worth together nearly 1 billion euros in producing materials or components for batteries.
\nMacron was also scheduled to meet officials from Chinese battery company SVOLT as France pushes to create a battery manufacturing hub in the north.
\nLe Maire was to host meetings on Monday with the CEOs of JPMorgan JPM.N, Goldman Sachs GS.N, Morgan Stanley MS.N and Bank of America BAC.N, among others.
\n(Reuters)Foreign investment pledges. foreign investment, President Emmanuel Macron, business projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France won a record 15 billion euros in foreign investment pledges, with Microsoft announcing a 4 billion euro investment in cloud and AI infrastructure. Other companies like Amazon, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novartis also pledged investments in France. Macron’s administration has faced criticism over public finances but has focused on attracting foreign investments to create jobs and boost the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,842,246,639,5277,1902,4335,810,186,4844,9838,486,33,3399,8486,4758,2369,2913,3818,26,153,358,379,599,6117,575,569,518,8219,9836,2688,828,499,415,5210,5988,290,6403,2753,3752,3404,2796,28,2121,3940,148,1236,422,2257,253,3747,6730,4661,7378,5328,6194,5863,1004,1021,4843,9837,5402,8171,3255,6074,8395,1824,1806,586,7967,812,1358,1065,3778,1183,5129],"class_list":["post-11657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-ai","tag-amazon","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bags","tag-bank","tag-batteries","tag-battery","tag-business","tag-business-leaders","tag-business-projects","tag-china","tag-companies","tag-corporate-taxes","tag-creation","tag-criticism","tag-data","tag-data-centre","tag-development","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-euro","tag-event","tag-far-right","tag-finance","tag-finance-minister","tag-finances","tag-foreign-investment","tag-foreign-investments","tag-foreign-investors","tag-france","tag-government","tag-government-officials","tag-grants","tag-green-investments","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-investments","tag-investors","tag-issues","tag-jobs","tag-land","tag-leaders","tag-local","tag-logistics","tag-macron","tag-meetings","tag-microsoft","tag-missing","tag-paris","tag-parliamentary-elections","tag-parties","tag-party","tag-pfizer","tag-polls","tag-power","tag-presidency","tag-president","tag-president-emmanuel-macron","tag-projects","tag-record","tag-reforms","tag-research","tag-research-and-development","tag-sectors","tag-services","tag-spain","tag-state","tag-storage","tag-support","tag-tax","tag-tax-credits","tag-taxes","tag-warning"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n