Question 12779 — industry

Summary

Mr. Édouard Bénard draws the attention of the Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans to the sale of LMB Aerospace to an American competitor and the proposed majority takeover of Exaion by another American actor. Indeed, the news of recent weeks has been marked by an attack on national industrial, technological and military sovereignty. The sale of the majority of the capital of Exaion, a high-tech subsidiary of EDF specialized in high performance computing (HPC), to Mara Holdings and the sale of LMB Aerospace, the industrial-space flagship of the French defense industrial and technological base (BITD), to Loar Group. These two operations carried out by the French State, sometimes against the advice of the competent authorities, mark a new gap between the official discourse on the strategic autonomy of France and the practices of the President of the Republic, undermining French defense policy in the process. Created in 2020, Exaion has not become just a simple digital services company, it guarantees the sovereignty of many strategic players by recycling EDF supercomputers and offers low-carbon digital services. Thus, it provides massive computing capacities essential for hosting highly sensitive data outside of GAFAM platforms, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models allowing the construction of advanced cybersecurity tools requiring data analysis and the securing of blockchain infrastructures, as evidenced by the role it plays in securing the issuance of Société Générale cryptoassets. In other words, Exaion constituted until then the basis of a vital base for the interests of France against the American giants of the cloud and digital, in addition to representing a possible partner of choice for armies (simulation, processing and hosting of strategic data, HPC, integration of AI into military equipment, secure infrastructures). And yet, 64% of this subsidiary was sold for nearly $170 million to the American group Mara Holdings, which specializes in bitcoin mining, without even the possibility being expressed. to bring the public investment fund Bpifrance into its capital. An issue relating to industrial sovereignty which is confused with the recent sale of LBM Aerospace to the giant Loar Group for a check worth around 370 million euros. Specializing in cooling and ventilation systems for the most sensitive military equipment (combat helicopters, military aircraft, tanks, SSBNs, Rafale), the French company with nearly 70 employees was finally sold against the advice of the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) and without the presence of Bpifrance in the capital, once again. Even more serious, this passage under the American flag subjects the Corrèze company to the Patriot Act and the international traffic in arms regulation (ITAR), a set of rules which allows the American government to control and imports and exports of military equipment incorporating American components. In other words, it raises the risk of a conditioning, or even a blocking of sales of our Rafales abroad, at a time when the resurgence of conflicts in the four corners of the globe implies closer cooperation and the need, for several foreign or partner states, to modernize their military equipment. He is more that it is urgent to take the measure of such a decision and avoid the same scandal as in 2018 when Washington blocked the sale of a dozen Rafales to Egypt because of the presence of American electronic chips in the Scalp cruise missiles manufactured by MBDA. More than simple financial operations, these sales raise a legitimate question: how can a State claim to defend its strategic autonomy while ceding its national flagships to third countries? A questioning reminiscent of those in the Eolane and Atos episodes. To this list of strategic companies sold at auction to foreign competitors – as long as it discredits French industry – is added the risk of capture of French patents, skills and know-how which raise fears of the worst for employees and the local industrial fabric once these companies emptied of their substance. Worse still, the golden share invoked by Bercy is not incompatible with possible technology transfers. Also, he asks him to protect Exaion and LMB Aerospace by explicitly including these two companies in the list of strategic sectors defined by the Montebourg decree. In the name of defending the BITD and French industrial sovereignty, he also demands that the Government mandate Bpifrance to enter into the capital of Exaion and LMB Aerospace in order to have a real lever of control.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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