Japan's SoftBank Group has pledged to invest up to €75 billion ($81 billion) in a vast network of AI computing clusters in France, backing what would be Europe's biggest data center project.
The plan would be SoftBank’s largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe, which is trying to catch up to AI data center spending in the US and China, according to the Financial Times.
The commitment marks the largest AI investment by Masayoshi Son’s group outside the US and delivers a boost to Emmanuel Macron ahead of the French president’s Choose France event this week, an annual gathering of dealmakers and executives.
The deal came together quickly after Macron and Son dined together in Tokyo in early April, according to people familiar with the meeting, where the president pitched France’s combination of plentiful nuclear power and fast-tracked approval for AI facilities.
Five Nuclear Power Stations
SoftBank’s initial commitment will see it lead an investment of €45 billion to build 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in the northern region of Hauts-de-France by 2031, with a further 2 gigawatts planned.
One of the main facilities in Dunkirk will see SoftBank partner with Schneider Electric to create a hub for AI infrastructure and robotics manufacturing, at a site ideally placed to serve customers in London, Brussels and Amsterdam.
If completed, the full 5-gigawatt complex – equivalent to the output of five nuclear power stations, or roughly New York City’s peak electricity demand.
Industry estimates suggest the cost of every 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure is roughly $50 billion in total – including land, construction, power and IT equipment – meaning SoftBank’s plan will rely on bringing in significantly more financing from as yet unnamed partners.
Decline in Europe Investments and International Competition
The investment seeks to bridge the technological gap as Europe faces economic stagnation compared to the US, China, and the Middle East in building huge data centers technology needed to meet soaring demand for AI computing power.
Investment has tended to flow to regions offering lower energy costs, faster grid connections and lighter-touch regulation on planning, data and emissions.
The French project forms part of SoftBank’s growing AI infrastructure portfolio, including a 10-gigawatt data center project in Ohio announced by Trump administration officials in March.
Alongside projects in the US and France, SoftBank is part of a consortium planning to build 5 gigawatts of AI infrastructure in Abu Dhabi with G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia and Cisco.
The group has committed more than $60 billion of investment into ChatGPT maker OpenAI. It is also planning the public listings of robotics and energy businesses in the US while building up semiconductor capacity around its crown jewel, UK chip designer Arm.
Son’s growing ambitions for data centers have replaced, to an extent, original plans for the $500 billion Stargate joint venture that had been designed to provide compute at a massive scale for OpenAI’s exclusive use.
