“Choose France”: Emmanuel Macron announces 13 billion in investments and receives Elon Musk

Emmanuel Macron received the billionaire Elon Musk on Monday morning before going to Versailles for the “Choose France” event, which brings together more than 200 foreign bosses and on the occasion of which 13 billion euros of investments have already been announced. , with 8,000 jobs at stake.

“There are negotiations that are underway” with Elon Musk, revealed on BFMTV / RMC Bruno Le Maire, who judged that the arrival of the billionaire, who did not announce an investment for Choose France, was “a very strong signal.

“All the investments that are made today are the fruit of months, even years of negotiations”, added the minister.

– Reinforced security –

Since the first edition in 2018, Choose France has, according to the Elysée, “become an unmissable event” which embodies the success of its policy to lower the cost of labor and reindustrialize the country, while accelerating the ecological transition.

Of some 400 guests received under the golds of the Palace of Versailles, 206 bosses of multinationals have confirmed that they will make the trip, half of whom will be participating in this event for the first time.

Will be present in particular Sunil Bharti Mittal, president of the diversified Indian group Bharti Enterprises, the executive president of ArcelorMittal Lakhsmi Mittal, or the CEO of Nokia Pekka Lundmark.

The security of the perimeter of the Palace of Versailles has been reinforced for the event, taking into account “the risk that it constitutes a privileged and symbolic target for the perpetration of acts of a terrorist nature”, according to a press release from the prefecture of Yvelines which specifies that it has authorized two drones to capture and transmit images.

– Batteries and solar panels –

The largest of the 28 announced projects was already unveiled by Emmanuel Macron on Friday during a trip to Dunkirk (northern France): 5.2 billion euros for a gigafactory of new generation batteries from Taiwanese ProLogium – which does not has never produced them in large series before – with 3,000 jobs.

The amount of public subsidies for this project alone, which have yet to be validated by Brussels, has not been made public but would be between 1 and 1.5 billion euros, according to the newspaper Les Echos.

Also in Dunkirk, the Chinese XTC will build with the French Orano a factory for battery components and recycling for 1.5 billion euros. Its managing director Jiang Long is expected at Versailles.

Another flagship project, the establishment in Sarreguemines (Moselle) of a photovoltaic panel production plant by Holosolis, an offshoot of the European group Innoenergy, for 710 million euros, representing 1,700 jobs.

“For years, we have subsidized photovoltaic panels that were made at the end of the world, here we are going to have photovoltaic panels Made in France”, welcomed Sunday on franceinfo the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure.

Also in energy, the start-up Newcleo is announcing 3 billion investments over the period 2025-2030 to develop a small modular reactor of the SMR type.

– Fewer jobs –

Among other projects, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea announces 906 million euros of investment in France by 2026, including the creation of a logistics center near Toulouse (south of France).

In pharmacy, Pfizer is injecting an additional 500 million euros and the British GSK nearly 400 million.

The total amount of investments is not calculated by Business France, but according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Cnuced), France ranked in 2021 only in sixth place in Europe with 14 billion FDI dollars.

mra-ys-vl-boc/cdu/dch