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SoftBank has pledged to invest up to €75bn in a vast network of AI computing clusters in France, backing what would be Europe’s biggest data centre project as the region races to catch up with the US and China in AI infrastructure.
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 next 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.
“SoftBank is proud to make this major commitment to France,” said Son, SoftBank’s founder and chief executive. “With its industrial capabilities, talent base and national ambition, France is uniquely positioned to become a leading AI infrastructure hub in Europe.”
However, Europe lags well behind the US, China and the Middle East in building the huge data centres that technology executives believe will be 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.
SoftBank’s initial commitment will see it lead an investment of €45bn to build 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in the northern region of Hauts-de-France by 2031, with a further 2GW 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 5GW complex — equivalent to the output of five nuclear power stations, or roughly New York City’s peak electricity demand — would take SoftBank’s total investment to about €75bn ($87bn).
The French project forms part of SoftBank’s growing AI infrastructure portfolio, including a 10GW data centre project in Ohio announced by Trump administration officials in March.
SoftBank is putting all of its efforts into establishing itself at the heart of the AI revolution. The group has committed more than $60bn of investment into ChatGPT maker OpenAI, is planning the public listings of robotics and energy businesses in the US and is building up semiconductor capacity around its crown jewel, UK chip designer Arm.
Son’s growing ambitions for data centres have replaced, to an extent, original plans for the $500bn Stargate joint venture that had been designed to provide compute at a massive scale for OpenAI’s exclusive use.
Industry estimates suggest the cost of every 1GW of AI infrastructure at roughly $50bn 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.
Typical funding arrangements would see SoftBank contributing a small initial equity financing, with the vast majority of the capital coming through debt-based project financing.
Alongside projects in the US and France, SoftBank is part of a consortium planning to build 5GW of AI infrastructure in Abu Dhabi with G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia and Cisco.
The ultimate customers and providers of the computing equipment for its French facility have not yet been determined.
Even as technology groups commit hundreds of billions of dollars to expanding AI capacity, not all of the projects trumpeted by politicians and executives have materialised.
A flagship UK project by OpenAI to build a facility in north-east England, hailed by British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government in September, has been put on indefinite hold.
Macron, who came to power in 2017 on a pro-business platform, has sought to lure industrial investments to France including through the now annual meet-and-greet at the Palace of Versailles. Recent editions have pivoted more towards AI, and France has vaunted its reliance on low-carbon nuclear electricity as one pull for investors.
This year’s Choose France comes less than a year before a highly uncertain presidential election in which the far right is polling ahead and Macron cannot stand again.
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