French President Emmanuel Macron announced a record €37 billion in foreign investment commitments at the annual “Choose France” summit in Versailles, Politico reported.
The haul includes €20 billion in new projects and €17 billion in previously pledged initiatives, underscoring Macron’s push to position France as Europe’s premier business hub.
The new commitments feature high-profile deals. Prologis, the US logistics giant will invest €6.4 billion in four data centres near Paris, while Amazon will expand French operations by €300m with a focus on cloud infrastructure and logistics.
Revolut, the British fintech firm, pledged €1 billion to secure a French banking licence and expand its EU base. Meanwhile, Cellnex, Spain’s telecom infrastructure, will invest €2.5 billion in 5G networks.
Additionally, €20.8 billion of the total aligns with Macron’s €109 billion artificial intelligence (AI) package unveiled at February’s Paris AI Summit, targeting sectors like defence and critical minerals.
Despite a 14% drop in foreign investment across Europe, France retained its top spot in EY’s 2024 attractiveness survey, outpacing Germany and the UK, which saw declines of 1% and 6%, respectively.
Macron hosted over 200 global CEOs, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund head Yasir Al-Rumayyan, for discussions on AI, critical minerals, and countering Hollywood’s dominance amid US-EU cinema trade tensions.
A gala dinner in the Hall of Mirrors symbolised Macron’s blend of opulence and policy pragmatism, a hallmark of his pro-business reforms since 2017.
