At the annual Choose France conference, which will be held in Versailles on Monday, President Emmanuel Macron will meet with world business leaders like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. They are expected to make record foreign investment pledges for France.
At this conference, the president may defend his pro-business reform effort and redirect focus to his advocacy for a lower carbon industry, such as electric vehicles, which has helped boost his popularity after a controversial proposal to raise the French retirement age.
Executives at the Versailles gathering outside Paris have pledged 13 billion euros ($14 billion), the biggest since Macron first organized the summit in 2018.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Macron at the Elysee Palace. Musk joked that he had to “sleep in the car” before meeting in one of Macron’s palatial offices.
The finance ministry told Reuters that Bruno Le Maire would offer Musk new tax benefits for green technology projects that Macron announced last week over lunch at Versailles.
France sought to persuade Musk to build a gigafactory in France, but he chose Germany, his only European gigafactory.
Le Maire told BFM TV that “all investments that are being made today are the result of months or even years of negotiations” regarding Musk’s potential involvement.
Tesla was unavailable for comment.
Since March 2022, Tesla’s plant outside Berlin has produced 5,000 Model Y cars a week and can generate 500,000 per year.
Tesla is one of the first companies to change its strategy due to IRA incentives, assembling batteries in Germany while producing cells in the U.S.
Macron announced last week that France’s 5,000-euro cash incentive for new electric car buyers would be conditional on their manufacturers achieving strict low-carbon standards, effectively banning automobiles built outside Europe.
France expects 28 investment projects from Pfizer (PFE.N), IKEA, and Morgan Stanley (MS.N). Projects will generate 8,000 jobs.
Macron announced Friday that a Taiwanese car battery producer would invest 5.2 billion euros in Dunkirk, the largest investment.
XTC and Orano will build a 1.5 billion euro battery components plant in Dunkirk.
Macron’s office said that IKEA will invest 906 million euros in France by 2026, Pfizer with 500 million euros, and GSK (GSK.L) with 400 million euros.
Morgan Stanley will add 200 Paris banking roles.
Macron has invited CEOs to Versailles Palace for five years to attract billions in international investments.
The former investment banker, who cannot run again in the 2027 elections after two mandates but is looking to his legacy, can move on from months of protests and strikes against his proposals to raise the retirement age to 64 at the summit.
He is also fighting globally for green technology investment while the U.S. has become a magnet since the Inflation Reduction Act.
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