[1/4] Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, X Corp. and Tesla, poses with French President Emmanuel Macron before their talks Monday, May 15, 2023, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. Michel Euler/Pool via Portal
PARIS, May 14 (Portal) – France is poised to receive record foreign investment pledges when President Emmanuel Macron hosts global business leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, at the annual Choose France summit in Versailles on Monday.
For the president, whose popularity has suffered after a largely unpopular proposal to raise France’s retirement age, the summit is an opportunity to justify his pro-business reform efforts and draw attention to his promotion of lower-carbon industries like electric vehicles.
Executives attending the event in Versailles, near Paris, have so far pledged to invest a total of 13 billion euros ($14 billion), the highest amount since Macron’s first summit in 2018.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), met Macron at his official residence, the Elysee Palace.
Sitting across from Macron in one of the Elysee Palace’s gilded rooms, Musk joked that he had to “sleep in the car” when he was caught on camera before their meeting.
In a subsequent statement, the Elysee said the meeting addressed several issues of common concern, notably Europe’s response to the US Inflation Reduction Act and the progress France is making in attracting investment and improving prospects for electric vehicles and energy have made.
“We have so much to do together,” Macron said in a tweet.
In Versailles, Musk will participate in a green industrialization roundtable and dinner with the other CEOs at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will propose to Musk new tax credits for investments in green technology, which Macron released last week, the Treasury Department told Portal.
France had previously tried to persuade Musk to build a European gigafactory in the country, but he chose Germany for his only European gigafactory to date.
When asked by BFM TV about Musk’s potential investments, Le Maire simply said, “All investments made today are the result of months or even years of negotiations.”
Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.
PALACETIC SETTING
For the past five years, Macron has invited top CEOs to the opulent Palace of Versailles to try to secure billions of dollars in foreign investment.
For the former investment banker, who after two terms is out of the 2027 general election but hopeful of his legacy, the summit offers a chance to put behind months of protests and strikes against his plans to raise the retirement age by two years leave until 64.
It also competes on the global stage for green technology investment as the United States has become a magnet following the introduction of its Inflation Reduction Act.
The Tesla plant near Berlin began delivering cars in March 2022 and produces around 5,000 Model Y vehicles weekly, with a maximum capacity of 500,000 cars per year.
But even though the company has started assembling batteries in Germany, Tesla has said it will focus cell production in the U.S. in light of IRA stimulus, making it one of the first companies to announce a package-triggered strategy shift.
To counteract this, Macron said last week that France’s existing cash incentives of up to €5,000 for buyers of new electric cars would be conditional on their manufacturers adhering to strict low-carbon standards and effectively excluding cars made outside of Europe.
So far, France is expecting a total of 28 investment projects from companies ranging from the US pharmaceutical group Pfizer (PFE.N) and the Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA to the investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N). The projects are expected to create a total of 8,000 jobs.
The largest single investment is a €5.2 billion project by a Taiwanese car battery maker in the northern port city of Dunkirk, Macron announced on Friday.
This is followed by a 1.5 billion euro battery component plant, also in Dunkirk, in a joint venture between the Chinese group XTC and the French company Orano.
IKEA plans to invest 906 million euros by 2026, while Pfizer has earmarked 500 million euros for expansion in France over the same period, followed by British rival GSK (GSK.L) with 400 million euros, Macron’s office said.
Morgan Stanley is expected to announce the creation of 200 new banking jobs in Paris.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)
Reporting by Leigh Thomas. Editing by Christina Fincher
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