Macron announces 93b euros in 'Choose France' investments

PARIS, Jun 1: President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he was expecting foreign investments amounting to 93 billion euros ($108 billion) at a conference dubbed "Choose France", including on artificial intelligence and data centres.

Money already pledged as part of his annual investment meeting would surpass the sum of 87 billion euros raised over the past eight years combined, he said.

"This edition of Choose France alone will make it possible to crystallise a record amount of 93 billion euros in confirmed investments, for more than 15,000 jobs. It is obviously by far a record edition, and it is historic," Macron said.

This year's pledges include 45 billion euros from Japanese tech investor SoftBank, Macron said. Its founder, Masayoshi Son,  said over the weekend that the money would be spent by 2031 on data centres in northern France.    �"AFP