SoftBank announced plans to develop AI data centers in France with up to 5 GW of capacity and an investment envelope of up to €75 billion. The first phase targets €45 billion and 3.
SoftBank unveiled plans to build AI data centers in France totaling up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and an investment of as much as €75 billion, a package the company described as its largest AI infrastructure commitment in Europe. The announcement, made at President Macron’s Choose France summit, signals a major push to site large‑scale compute in Europe and raises immediate questions about power provisioning, supply chains and local job creation. If completed, the program would shift significant AI compute and related industrial activity into French regions and require substantial grid and manufacturing expansions.
The program’s first phase is scoped at €45 billion and 3.1 GW of capacity to be built by 2031 across three Hauts‑de‑France sites: Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain. SoftBank said it will work with Schneider Electric to establish a manufacturing cluster for data‑center components in Dunkirk. At Bosquel, SoftBank will partner with French startup Sesterce to build a large‑scale “AI factory” that combines energy, compute and local partnerships; Sesterce CEO Youssef El Manssouri called the tie‑up “a defining moment […] for the future of sovereign AI infrastructure in Europe.
The announcement sits alongside multiple global SoftBank infrastructure initiatives that are at various stages of development. In Abu Dhabi, a Stargate UAE project with G42 targets up to 1 GW of capacity, and SoftBank has discussed a Stargate site in the UK with OpenAI that sources reported is currently on hold. In Japan, SoftBank is coordinating a domestic trillion‑parameter foundation model effort with partners including NEC, Honda, Sony and three major banks, with plans to keep processing on Japanese soil in a former Sharp factory in Sakai.
French officials framed the package as a strategic industrial investment. Economy Minister Roland Lescure highlighted France’s fast access to the European power grid, an existing industrial ecosystem and streamlined permitting as advantages for the project. SoftBank estimated the program would create thousands of jobs, while independent observers warned that several previously announced SoftBank mega‑projects worldwide have yet to materialize, leaving exact timelines and final financing arrangements uncertain.
For builders and operators, the plan underscores large power and supply‑chain implications. A 5 GW target — and a 3.1 GW first phase concentrated at three sites — implies major on‑site generation or grid upgrades, validating the rationale for a component manufacturing cluster in Dunkirk. The Bosquel “AI factory” concept points to an integrated approach pairing energy, compute capacity and local industrial partners to support high‑density AI workloads and to address Europe’s stated interest in sovereign AI infrastructure objectives.
Sources
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