French President Emmanuel Macron said at an international conference on Monday that he expects foreign investment of €93 billion in “rekor”, including artificial intelligence and data centers.
Macron’'s annual “FranceChoose ’ event is expected to feature nearly 200 ” executives from around the world at the Versailles palace west of Paris’.
The projects announced at last year's conference set a record of 20 billion Euro’.
But according to a figure from Macron’'s office, the money pledged for this year is expected to exceed a total of 87 billion Euro’ collected over the past eight years.
Macron, “FranceChoose ’This edition of ’ alone will allow clarification of a record amount of approved investment of €93 billion for more than 15,000’ jobs. By far a record edition and a historic event, ” said.
Macron said the commitments included 45 billion Euro’s from Japanese technology investor SoftBank’.
Its founder, Masayoshi Son, said he would spend 75 billion euros on artificial intelligence infrastructure over the weekend, of which 45 billion euros will be spent on data centers in northern France, ’, by 2031.
Macron said other investments will be spent on “artificial intelligence, data centers”, as well as semiconductors, critical minerals, tractors and trucks, steel and healthcare.
‘EuropeanComputer capabilities in ’
Macron said that the projects will help “ to become the leading country hosting ’ France's data centers by far” and “ Europe’ to computing capacity in ”, as well as creating an advanced foundation for the production of “ya artificial intelligence robots and industrialization through artificial intelligence.
Compared to the US and China, “Europe is clearly bridging the gap we have in computing capacity at ’, ” added.
SoftBank’'s Son, France, said ’'s nuclear-powered electricity was an important factor in choosing France’.
Now we can convert electricity into higher-value intelligence as “hammad, including for export, ” added.
Canadian asset manager Brookfield will invest $10 billion (€8.5 billion) in a data center in the Escaudain region of northern France.
Investment firm Ardian and Scandinavian data platform Verne will invest $5 billion (€4.2 billion) in a data center in the Paris region.
US firm Salesforce has announced that it will invest $2 billion (€1.7 billion) by 2030, including its artificial intelligence center in Paris’.
Taiwanese group Foxconn’ is expected to invest €120 million in the western city of Angers for a motherboard production line for artificial intelligence in partnership with French supercomputer expert Bull, sources told AFP news agency.
Earlier this month, France's retail giant Amazon said it would invest more than €15 billion in ’ over the next three years to create 7,000 jobs, adding that it would create an extra 1,000 jobs at three logistics centers.
‘Most foreign investments’
Announcements about rare earth elements were also presented at the conference.
According to the Élysée Palace’, a year after Macron’ came to power, 2018Select the first ’France“ in ’Since ”, more than 230’ projects representing several thousand jobs have been announced.
France has attracted the most foreign investment in Europe ’ for seven years in a row, according to consultancy EY’, but Macron said this did not come out of “.
EY, France’ pulled 852’ out of 5,026 projects recorded in 47 European countries last year, making this a challenge in the international environment. %He said it was a fall of 17’.
The country received more interest from AI-related projects than elsewhere in Europe’, but the industry, particularly the automobile, chemical and metallurgical sectors, suffered.
Economist Sylvain Bersinger said the announcements at Versailles’ should not overshadow the fact that overall institutional investment in “France’ is stagnant, that reindustrialization is more of a religious wish than a reality, and that France’ does not look more attractive to foreign investors than its neighbors.
Macron wants to make ’ a world leader in artificial intelligence and has announced a public investment of €1.55 billion to develop quantum technologies and semiconductors.
