Paris (AFP) – France will announce 37 billion euros ($41.3 billion) in foreign investment on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron hosts more than 200 top executives at a business summit in Versailles, the French presidency said. Of the total, 20 billion euros are “entirely new” projects — a record for the event, which drew 15 billion euros in commitments last year. The remaining 17 billion euros was announced in February and has now been finalised and tied to specific sites, the presidency added.
Among the headline deals, US logistics giant Prologis is set to invest 6.4 billion euros in four data centres in the Ile-de-France region, according to the newspaper Le Parisien. Emirati investors are also committing 8 billion euros as part of a larger 50-billion-euro data infrastructure project, previously flagged in February, La Tribune reported. Amazon is expected to announce a 300-million-euro development, while Le Figaro reported four other major projects totalling 800 million euros. They include 90 million euros from German automaker Daimler to expand its electric bus plant in Ligny-en-Barrois and 450 million euros from US recycler Circ for a textile recycling facility in Moselle.
The government also announced plans to reform the textile recycling sector, calling the current model “exhausted”. Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos told La Tribune that France remained “very important” for the platform. It has employed 25,000 French actors and technicians between 2021 and 2024 on productions including “Lupin”, “Tapie” and “Sous la Seine”.
Macron will host several roundtables, including on artificial intelligence and energy transition. Attendees include South Korean executives, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, Stella Li of China’s BYD, and the CEO of Saudi entertainment firm Qiddiya. Gulf sovereign wealth funds Mubadala, PIF, and QIA will also be present, with Macron set to open the Paris office of the Saudi Public Investment Fund on Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
