SoftBank has put a very large number on Europe’s AI infrastructure race: up to €75 billion for 5 GW of data center capacity in France. The company describes it as its largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe.
The first phase is €45 billion, or about $52 billion, for 3.1 GW before 2031. The sites are all in Hauts-de-France: Loon-Plage near Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain. At full scale, 5 GW is roughly the output of several nuclear reactors dedicated to AI compute.
The partners show why France won the project. Schneider Electric is building a manufacturing cluster near Dunkirk, EDF is tied to power supply at Bouchain, SB Energy handles energy work, and OpenAI sits in the background as both SoftBank’s partner and a likely customer for the capacity.
Masayoshi Son is betting that AI demand will keep outrunning available compute. If that remains true, France gives SoftBank cheap, stable nuclear electricity and a European sovereignty story. If the curve flattens before 2031, 5 GW of AI halls turns into an enormous depreciation bill.
Sources: SoftBank Group announcement on 5 GW of AI data center capacity in France; CocoLoop; TechCrunch; CNBC