Overview
- The ninth Choose France summit took place Monday at the Château de Versailles with President Emmanuel Macron and ministers presenting the summit as a showcase of foreign industrial investment.
- The Élysée cited about €87 billion of international investment since 2018 and France topped EY’s 2025 European rankings with 852 foreign projects, figures the government uses to argue progress on jobs and capacity.
- Ministers and outlets reported very large new pledges ahead of the summit, including a reported SoftBank plan to invest €75 billion in AI-related infrastructure and Energias de Portugal formalising about €1.3 billion in renewables, with reporting characterising these as announced or reported commitments rather than fully executed projects.
- Analysts and critics say deeper indicators lag: industry’s share of GDP is around 9.5%, the trade deficit persists, and some high-profile commitments have been only partly realised or frozen, for example Novo Nordisk’s Chartres investment is reported half completed while Vorwerk’s site has delivered €130 million and 124 jobs.
- Beyond headline numbers, experts point to sectoral divergence, global competition and implementation risks as key limits to reindustrialisation and say the summit also serves a political role in shaping the government’s industrial narrative ahead of coming elections.