SoftBank Unveils Massive €75 Billion AI Data Center and Manufacturing Hub in France

Formallyax unveiled at the 2026 Choose France business summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles, the initiative marks SoftBank’s largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe to date. The project firmly establishes France as the continent’s premier destination for high-performance computing, capitalizing on the nation’s robust, low-carbon nuclear power grid and an aggressive regulatory push to attract next-generation tech industries.

The gargantuan infrastructure project will roll out in deliberate phases, with the initial phase deploying €45 billion to deliver 3.1 GW of computing capacity by 2031. This first wave of development will be concentrated heavily in the northern Hauts-de-France region, leveraging its geographic proximity to major European tech markets.

SoftBank has identified three key locations for its initial cluster: Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain. By placing these data centers in the north, SoftBank is strategically positioning its computing power to effortlessly serve high-demand digital hubs across London, Brussels, and Amsterdam. When fully completed, the total 5 GW complex will pull an electrical load roughly equivalent to the peak power demands of New York City, or the output of five nuclear power stations.

The Power Play: Nuclear Energy as a Digital Asset

The genesis of this blockbuster deal tracks back to personal diplomacy between President Emmanuel Macron and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who dined together in Tokyo. During the meeting, Macron successfully pitched France’s structural advantages over its European neighbors, specifically, its abundant, state-backed nuclear energy.

For AI data centers, which require unyielding, massive electrical loads to power advanced machine learning processors, power availability is the ultimate constraint. While much of Europe faces a power supply crunch, regulatory hurdles, and high energy costs, France offers fast access to an exceptionally reliable, decarbonized electrical grid managed by state-owned utility giant EDF. In a symbolic passing of the torch from the industrial age to the digital age, EDF is partnering directly in the buildout, handing over a former fossil-fuel power plant site in Bouchain to SoftBank for data center conversion.

Industrial Sovereignty and the Schneider Electric Partnership

Beyond pure data storage and computing, SoftBank’s French expansion includes a major domestic manufacturing component aimed at securing European technological sovereignty. At the Port of Dunkirk’s Western Harbour, SoftBank is partnering with French engineering and energy management giant Schneider Electric to establish a state-of-the-art industrial production cluster.

This joint manufacturing hub will consist of two distinct facilities:

• SoftBank-operated site: Dedicated to building high-tech hardware enclosures using SoftBank’s proprietary robotics and automation capabilities.

• Schneider Electric-operated site: Focused on manufacturing and integrating prefabricated data center power modules, which optimize energy efficiency and accelerate data center deployment at scale.

By anchoring advanced hardware manufacturing locally, the project creates an integrated supply chain that links European energy directly to cutting-edge AI architecture.

Son’s Global AI Puzzle and Funding Hurdles

This French venture is the latest piece in Masayoshi Son’s aggressive, multi-billion-dollar global spending spree to position SoftBank at the epicenter of the artificial intelligence revolution. SoftBank’s sprawling portfolio already includes a dominant majority stake in UK chip designer Arm, over $30 billion in direct investments into ChatGPT-maker OpenAI (representing roughly an 11% stake), a massive 10 GW data center development in Ohio, and a 5 GW AI consortium in Abu Dhabi with G42 and Nvidia.

However, the sheer scale of Son’s ambitions has raised eyebrows on Wall Street. With the industry standard cost of every 1 GW of AI infrastructure hovering around $50 billion when factoring in land, advanced cooling systems, and specialized graphics processing units (GPUs), SoftBank’s 5 GW plan relies heavily on securing external debt and project financing. Analysts point out that SoftBank, which carries a notable debt load, will likely use a standard infrastructure playbook: contributing a small slice of initial equity while relying on a network of unnamed financial partners to carry the remaining capital expenditures.

For France, the domestic payoff is immediate and long-term. In the local commune of Bosquel alone, a joint venture between SoftBank and French data center firm Sesterce will build a 1 GW campus expected to bring 400 permanent, highly skilled operational roles to the area.

Across the entire country, the project is projected to create thousands of jobs spanning engineering, data center operations, advanced manufacturing, and robotics. To sustain this talent pipeline, SoftBank has committed to establishing a €10 million endowment fund in collaboration with the Hauts-de-France region. This fund will partner with local engineering schools and universities to pioneer next-generation AI infrastructure curriculums, ensuring that the local workforce is fully equipped to run the digital backbone of Europe’s future.