{"id":28014,"date":"2026-05-31T08:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/28014\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:14:08","slug":"softbank-to-build-up-ai-data-centers-in-france-with-major-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/28014\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank to build up AI data centers in France with major investment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CANADA &#8211; 2025\/08\/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Japan&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/9984.T-JP\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SoftBank Group<\/a> will invest 45 billion euros ($53 billion) over the next five years in a push to build up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">artificial intelligence<\/a> infrastructure in France, the company announced on Saturday. SoftBank said the investment, described as the biggest of its kind so far in Europe, would be made in the northern Hauts-de-France region and deliver 3.1 GW of capacity. <\/p>\n<p>The investment plans are due to be formally announced on Monday at the annual Choose France business conference. <\/p>\n<p>French engineering company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/SBGSF\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Schneider Electric<\/a> said it would be one of the project&#8217;s key partners and equip the sites with its modules without disclosing financials. <\/p>\n<p>Three sites, including one in Dunkirk, are expected to come into operation by 2031.<\/p>\n<p>Additional sites spread across France are planned further down the road, SoftBank said, pushing the overall planned investment sum to 75 billion euros ($87 billion). <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that the country is a producer and exporter of energy is absolutely decisive for investments in AI infrastructure,&#8221; SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son told the paper La Tribune du Dimanche. <\/p>\n<p>State-owned nuclear energy giant EDF is also part of the deal, handing one of its former power plants over to SoftBank to transform the site into a data center. <\/p>\n<p>The French commitment adds to a global AI infrastructure spending spree by SoftBank. Its investments in AI also include over $30 billion invested in OpenAI so far, for about an 11% stake. <\/p>\n<p>France has been using the Choose France summit to court foreign investors since it was launched by President Emmanuel Macron in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CANADA &#8211; 2025\/08\/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo is seen displayed on a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13020],"tags":[14844,110,5,558,13057,17401,20454,244],"class_list":["post-28014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-schneider-electric","tag-breaking-news-technology","tag-business-news","tag-france","tag-japan","tag-schneider-electric","tag-schneider-electric-se","tag-softbank-group-corp","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}