6.7 billion euros in 2022, 13 billion in 2023 for 28 projects… At each Choose France summit, a major meeting in Versailles for foreign bosses, the billions of euros in commitments from companies that focus on Hexagon add up. This Monday, May 13, 180 foreign bosses are expected for the 7th edition of this meeting chaired by Emmanuel Macron.
As of this Sunday, before the opening of the summit, the government has lifted the veil on some expected announcements. Several companies are expected to announce plans to invest in artificial intelligence and IT in France, but the Ministry of the Economy has so far put forward projects in various industries (fertilizers, nickel, aviation, household robots, chemicals) and from the banks which will hire in Paris.
A fertilizer factory
The biggest project at this stage, in euros, concerns a potential fertilizer factory which would greatly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the first gas to warm the atmosphere. The European consortium FertigHy will announce plans to invest 1.3 billion euros for a factory in the Somme, in Languevoisin, according to the Minister Delegate in charge of Industry of France, Roland Lescure, In the Tribune Sunday.
The plant would produce nitrogen fertilizer without using natural gas, which is the historic ingredient. Hydrogen extracted from water in an electrolyzer will replace a gas that Europeans once imported largely from Russia. The project, whose final investment decision is expected at the end of 2026, is a “road map for European sovereignty”, Jose Antonio de las Heras Alonso, general director of FertigHy, told AFP.
A nickel refining plant
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, for his part announced the creation of a nickel refining plant in the municipalities of Blanquefort/Parempuyre (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) by the company KL1, based in Switzerland. The Blanquefort site “had been very marked by the closure of Ford”, recalled the minister during a telephone call with the press. Amount of investment: 300 million euros, for 200 jobs. The start of the activity is planned for 2027. “With this investment, France will be able to have the entire value chain of the electric vehicle: mining, refining, cathodes, battery, electric vehicle,” assured Bruno The mayor.
A fortiori because the Belgian chemical group Solvay will reconvert its La Rochelle factory to “soon launch the first phase of a large-scale rare earth production unit”, also announced Roland Lescure. Rare earths are essential for the engines of electric cars. The investment could ultimately reach 100 million euros, according to him.
A future aeronautical factory
Bruno Le Maire also announced a future aeronautical factory with the German company Lilium, “in a site which remains to be determined but which will be in New Aquitaine, to produce an electric regional plane and the reconditioning of the batteries of this electric regional plane”. “The investment amounts to 400 million euros, represents 850 jobs and the entry into service of the factory is planned for 2026,” he continued. Lilium develops vertical take-off and landing devices in Germany.
More modest, the German manufacturer of the luxurious Thermomix household robot, Vorwerk, will according to Roland Lescure create 50 jobs in the Châteaudun region, where it already has a factory: 72 million will be invested. “Tomorrow, there will be 1.8 million Thermomixes produced per year in France, 85% of which are intended for export,” says Roland Lescure.
The German electrical equipment specialist Hager, already established in Obernai and Bischwiller (Bas-Rhin), will for its part invest “several tens of millions of euros” in France, a source close to the matter told AFP on Friday, confirming information of the world.
A Morgan Stanley European campus in Paris
Finally, Bruno Le Maire announced that the American bank Morgan Stanley, which had grown from 150 to 400 employees in France in three years, would welcome its new European campus in Paris (100 additional jobs). Furthermore, First Abu Dhabi Bank, the main Emirati bank, and Zenith Bank, a Nigerian bank that has become one of the main Pan-African banks, will set up in Paris, according to the same source.
“What is interesting is to see the confirmation of Anglo-Saxon investments but also the deployment of financial investors outside Anglo-Saxon countries,” said Bruno Le Maire, who will have lunch this Monday with representatives of large international banks .
Other unconfirmed projects
Bruno Le Maire’s office refused to confirm information circulating in the press in recent days concerning other investments, notably from the giant Amazon. According to The echoes, Amazon “would like to spend 1.3 billion euros on a data center for its AWS cloud subsidiary and a warehouse for its e-commerce activities”, enough to create “3,000 jobs”. According to AFP, the American group IBM should announce 45 million euros of investments in quantum computing and around fifty hires by 2025 on its Paris-Saclay site, according to a source close to the file.
According to the magazine The new factory, since the launch of this annual forum in 2018, 122 projects have been announced for a total of 31.9 billion euros, mainly involving extensions of already existing sites.