Incredible but true. Very few Israelis in the high-tech world expected the major French offensive in attracting high-tech investors. They discover that France is building its own “Startup Nation” at full speed. It is a fact, France will compete very strongly with Israel in attracting American high-tech to its territory.

According to (1): “Some 140 leaders of multinationals met for a mini-summit in Versailles at the invitation of Emmanuel Macron who tries to convince decision makers to bet on France in a post-Brexit context. Two days before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this summit of economic attractiveness called “Choose France” brings together leaders of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein, JP Morgan Jamie Dimon and Facebook Sheryl Sandberg. Here are the announcements of investments made at this summit, which amount to 3.5 billion euros and 2,200 jobs over five years, according to the Elysee:

Toyota
The Japanese manufacturer announces an investment of 300 million euros on its site of Onnaing, near Valenciennes (North), which currently has 3,800 people. This investment should make it possible to recruit 700 permanent and 100 temporary workers by 2020, to increase the capacity of the site to 300,000 vehicles per year against 240,000 currently. It must also make it possible to produce the fourth generation of the Yaris in 2020 and a new model in 2021. State direct financial assistance will be between 15 and 20 million euros.

Facebook
The group founded by Mark Zuckerberg announced in the night its intention to invest an additional 10 million euros in France through its research center in the field of artificial intelligence. The Paris site of FAIR, the research laboratory of the group in Artificial Intelligence, will host by 2022 60 researchers and engineers and 40 PhD students. Second part of the investment plan, the training of 65,000 people with digital skills in France by the end of 2019. It will involve 50,000 people away from employment by the end of 2019 in partnership with Pôle Emploi and 15,000 women. “We are in the register of the emblematic, it sends the signal of the competitiveness of France on artificial intelligence and it is fundamental in the world, vis-à-vis the United States and Asia” , we note at the Elysee.

Novartis
The pharmaceutical group has reaffirmed its ambitions for development in the field of biotechnology in France, through the finalization of the acquisition of a little over three billion euros of Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA), a French biotech in medicine nuclear. Novartis also confirmed its three-year investment plan of 900 million euros, in trials and clinical research, in the new headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison and in the extension of the Huningue plant (Haut-Rhin) .

Google
The American giant of the web will open a center of fundamental research on artificial intelligence in France, the second in Europe after Zurich. Composed of researchers and in partnership with the French academic community, it will be responsible for working on machine learning, natural language or computer vision applicable to the fields of health, science, art and technology. environment.

Four spaces “Digital Workshops Google” dedicated to the digital culture and training of French citizens “to improve their digital skills”, will also see the day. In total, the goal is to train an additional 10,000 people a year. This project is part of the government’s desire to strengthen the digitization of SMEs, VSEs and the population, says the Elysee. The group had already announced in September that it would increase by nearly 50% the workforce present at headquarters in the 9th district of Paris. These numbers will increase from 700 to 1,000, with the ambition of “becoming a real campus”.

SAP
The German software provider has decided to invest more than two billion euros over five years for innovation in France. In particular, SAP will open its second incubator in Europe, which will be responsible for supporting more than 50 startups in their growth. Some € 150 million will also be spent per year on research and development over the next five years.

Other:
* Manpower: project to create jobs in the city’s neighborhoods (1,000 temporary CDI jobs), coupled with training for a job demanded by the employment area.

* General Mills: extension of an ice-cold stick production line on the Arras site for € 17 million with some fifty jobs expected.

*East Balt: investment of 37 million euros on the site of Plessy-Pâté (Essonne), a buns manufacturing facility for this subcontractor of Burger King (65 jobs expected).

* Fresh Del Monte: creation of a fresh fruit cutting plant in the Somme, representing an investment of 9 million euros.

* Airties: installation of an innovation center in Paris intramuros with a first team of 15 engineers and a R & D center in Rennes. This project should represent 120 jobs over 3 years in Paris and Brittany.

* The Korean food group SPC: greenfield investment of 20 million euros in the Manche, Saint James, for the creation of a factory making frozen pastries (creation of 45 jobs in the first phase “with significant additional potential” ).

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