SoftBank Group announced today that it plans to spend up to €75 billion (around $87 billion) to expand data center capacity in France.
The goal, the firm said, is to develop and operate up to 5 gigawatts of additional data center capacity. The first phase of the plan involves building data centers in Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain to deliver 3.1 gigawatts of capacity to the Hauts-de-France region by 2031.
SoftBank, which is both an investor in and customer of OpenAI, says this will be its largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe.
In a statement, French economic minister Roland Lescure described the announcement as a “testament to President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to position France as a leading destination all along the AI value chain.”
In the United States, opposition to data center construction is heating up over environmental concerns, as well as questions about how data centers affect the electrical grid and utility prices. Nonetheless, SoftBank earlier announced plans to build a data center in Ohio, powered by a new 9.2 gigawatt natural gas plant.