Choose France 2026: showcasing France’s economic attractiveness Economic diplomacy News Published on : May 29th 2026 Created by the President of the French Republic, the Choose France Summit is the essential event for France’s economic attractiveness. Each year, it brings together international leaders with the same central theme: why choose France to invest, produce, innovate and develop the technologies of tomorrow? Just a few days after the EY Attractiveness Survey was published, confirming France’s place for the seventh consecutive year as the leading European destination for international investments, the 2026 Choose France Summit aims to tangibly demonstrate what this attractiveness produces: factories, data centres, laboratories, jobs and new industrial projects across all French regions. Behind the announced investments, there is most importantly one ambition: make France one of the major European destinations where 21st-century industry and technologies are built. 1. Choose France: the summit where innovation, industrial power and investors meet This ninth edition will bring together more than 200 business leaders from some 50 countries. Throughout the day, they will discuss with the President of the French Republic and with French ministers and decision-makers at bilateral meetings dedicated to investment, business launch and expansion projects in France. Business leaders, investors, researchers, artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and energy transition actors will meet in the sumptuously decorated rooms of the Château de Versailles. More than a simple business event, the Choose France Summit is now seen as a showcase of a France that innovates, reindustrializes its regions and accelerates the energy and digital transition. • The 2026 event will place a focus on the following sectors: - artificial intelligence;- digital infrastructures;- decarbonized energy;- electronics and semiconductors;- space;- and technologies linked to European industrial and technological sovereignty. The summit is also a showcase of French excellence. After Tony Estanguet and Teddy Riner in previous years, the 2026 plenary sequence will see a dialogue between innovation, science and culture with Thomas Pesquet, Arnaud Prost and Sophie Adenot from the International Space Station and George Clooney (TBC). 2. AI, industry, energy: France’s flagship 2030 projects Artificial intelligence plays a central role in this 2026 edition. A year after the AI Action Summit held in Paris, France now wants to illustrate its ability to host the necessary infrastructures for this technological revolution: data centres, supercomputers, electricity grids and large-scale computing capacities. France has major assets: decarbonized electricity production, a high energy capacity, a dense digital technology network and a strategic geographical location between Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. Why invest in France? France boasts several assets to host international projects: - high percentage of decarbonized electricity; - innovation ecosystem supported by France 2030; - cutting-edge digital and logistical infrastructures; - strategic access to the European market; - favourable tax schemes for research and green industry; - qualified workforce and excellent training programmes; - simplified procedures to accelerate industrial and technological projects. Choose France Days: the attractiveness of the entire country Before the Summit at Versailles, the Choose France Days provide an opportunity to discover the reality of international investments where they take shape: in factories, laboratories, research centres and French industrial regions. Everywhere in France, foreign businesses, industrial sites and economic actors open their doors to show the tangible effects of economic attractiveness: jobs, innovation, energy transition, reindustrialization and training in trades of the future. From the Hauts-de-France to the Occitanie regions, these days offer the opportunity to discover a France that produces, innovates and transforms its regions, right on the ground. The public is invited to participate in this sequence and discover the businesses and projects mobilized all over France. More information on the programme and events: Les Journées Choose France au cœur des entreprises engagées Choose France in the regions: three tangible examples AI: the Hauts-de-France region, a future European data centre hub In Dunkirk, Escaudain and Le Bosquel, several international businesses are developing new data centres and computing infrastructures destined to support the rise of artificial intelligence in Europe. Corporations such as Microsoft, Digital Realty and Data4 have announced or strengthened their investments in French digital infrastructures. Aided by enhanced electricity generation capacity, electricity production that is mainly decarbonized, and accelerated grid connection procedures, the Hauts-de-France region is now home to some of the most strategic digital projects on the continent. Green industry: Fos-sur-Mer, a lab for industrial decarbonization All around the port of Marseille-Fos, several international businesses are investing in new projects linked to low-carbon hydrogen, decarbonized steel and sustainable fuels. Companies such as GravitHy, H2V and Marcegaglia are contributing to the gradual transformation of this historic industrial basin into one of the main European hubs of green industry and the energy transition. Space: Toulouse, an ecosystem focused on international cooperation Gravitating around Airbus Defence and Space, the French Space Agency (CNES), Thales Alenia Space and several New Space start-ups, the Toulouse space industry attracts industrial partners, technological cooperation projects and international investments in the fields of satellites, Earth observation and embedded technologies. This momentum will be particularly in focus at Choose France 2026, in a year also marked by the hosting in France of the International Space Summit scheduled for September 2026. In eight years, Choose France has gradually become one of the major European economic events. The summit is now a marker of France’s strategy for reindustrialization, innovation and attractiveness, with tangible effects for French regions, employment and trades of the future.