As the ninth edition of the Choose France summit dedicated to foreign investments opens, from Monday June 1 at the Palace of Versailles, the first investments began to be announced during the weekend.
The Japanese technology sector giant SoftBank has thus unveiled a colossal data center project in Hauts-de-France representing 45 billion euros by 2031, and 75 billion euros over time, “an unprecedented amount in the history of investments by a company in France”, according to the Élysée.
To mark the occasion of this spectacular project in infrastructures linked to artificial intelligence, the President of the Republic will receive the president of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, on Monday morning at the Élysée.
According to Les Échos, the Canadian asset manager Brookfield should announce 10 billion dollars (8.57 billion euros) of investments in a data center in Escaudain (North), and the investment company Ardian and the Nordic data center platform Verne 5 billion dollars for a data center in Île-de-France.
The Taiwanese group Foxconn should invest 120 million euros in Angers to launch a production line for motherboards dedicated to artificial intelligence, in partnership with the French supercomputer specialist Bull, we learned from sources close to the discussions on Sunday.
“Choose France Days”
The Italian steel group Marcegaglia has indicated that it will invest 600 million euros for its Mistral project in Fos-sur-Mer. As for the American water treatment specialist Ecolab, it will put 100 million euros on the table on two sites in France, near Marseille and in Moselle.
Emmanuel Macron had predicted “tremendous” announcements on Friday during the Choose France summit, and the Élysée had promised a “historic” edition.
This new edition, Emmanuel Macron’s last, should also see announcements in the field of rare earths, the Élysée had suggested. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet should be present to talk about the space summit which will take place in September.
The last edition of the summit, in May 2025, broke a record with 20 billion euros of projects announced, and 20.8 billion euros of commitments on artificial intelligence (AI) made in February ratified.
This year, this meeting was for the first time preceded by Choose France Days, organized throughout the country based on the Heritage Days model. This weekend, they allowed the French to visit the sites of 92 companies, from the steel giant ArcelorMittal to the car manufacturer Toyota, including data centers and logistics warehouses.
