France hopes to receive record pledges of foreign investment after President Emmanuel Macron hosts Elon Musk and other big businessmen at the annual Choose France summit in Versailles on Monday, Reuters reported.

Emmanuel Macron with Elon Musk at the Elysee PalacePhoto: Stephane Lemouton-Pool / SIPA / Profimedia

For the French president, whose popularity has plummeted since the introduction of a controversial pension reform, the summit will be an opportunity to justify his pro-business policies and promote his commitment to cutting carbon emissions.

The leaders who will attend the event outside Paris have already announced a total investment in France of 13 billion euros, a record figure for these summits, which Macron began organizing in 2018.

South African billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, met with the French leader at his official residence in the Elysee Palace.

Sitting next to Macron in a room at the Elysee Palace, Musk joked in a comment picked up by reporters that he “slept in the car” before the meeting.

Macron wants to lure the Tesla boss to France with tax breaks

In a press release after the meeting, Macron’s administration said several topics of mutual interest were discussed, including France’s progress in attracting investment for the electric vehicle and green energy industries.

“We have so much to do together,” Macron wrote after the meeting.

Musk is scheduled to attend a roundtable on “green industrialization” in Versailles and a dinner attended by other CEOs invited by the French president.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would present Musk with new tax breaks prepared by the Paris cabinet for investments in green technology, measures Macron announced last week.

France previously tried to convince Musk to build Tesla’s European “gigafactory” on the country’s territory, but the South African billionaire eventually chose Germany.

Responding to questions from BFM TV journalists about Musk’s possible investments in the country, Le Maire only stated that “all the investments that will be agreed today are the result of months or even years of negotiations.”