SoftBank to invest up to €75 billion in French AI data centers

SoftBank Group announced plans to put up to €75 cardinal — astir $87 cardinal — to make and run 5 gigawatts of AI information halfway capableness successful France, marking the company's largest AI infrastructure committedness successful Europe.

Under the archetypal phase, SoftBank has earmarked €45 cardinal to bring 3.1 GW of information halfway capableness online successful the Hauts-de-France portion earlier the extremity of 2031, the institution said. Sites are planned for Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain. Additional sites crossed France are planned arsenic portion of the broader buildout.

At a Monday property briefing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Son enactment his signature connected the €75 cardinal committedness and suggested the full fig balloons to astir $750 cardinal erstwhile the broader strategy is factored in, CNBC reported. Son noted that large unreality providers are among the venture's customers and that SoftBank is pooling task financing to money the effort.

A large-scale concern accumulation clump astatine the Port of Dunkirk volition beryllium developed jointly with French engineering steadfast Schneider Electric, SoftBank said. The clump volition see 2 facilities: 1 operated by SoftBank Group to manufacture enclosures, and 1 operated by Schneider Electric to integrate information halfway powerfulness modules, the institution said.

French state-owned atomic inferior EDF has a relation successful the task arsenic well, with a decommissioned powerfulness works successful Bouchain acceptable to beryllium transferred to SoftBank and repurposed arsenic a information center, Reuters reported.

The announcement was made arsenic portion of the 2026 Choose France summit, an yearly concern league hosted by President Macron. "AI is entering a caller era, and the countries that physique the infrastructure for this translation volition signifier the aboriginal of technology, manufacture and society," Son said successful a statement.

SoftBank said the information centers volition service AI companies, unreality providers, enterprises, nationalist institutions, and probe organizations. The institution cited France's grid infrastructure, concern onshore availability, and engineering endowment arsenic factors successful its decision.

Shares of SoftBank jumped 14% connected Monday and are up implicit 70% connected the year, CNBC noted. Beyond the France deal, the institution has funneled upward of $30 cardinal into OpenAI and counts an ownership involvement successful Arm Holdings — whose processor architectures underpin AI server infrastructure — among its cardinal AI-linked assets.