SoftBank pledges €75B for Europe's largest AI data center buildout in France

SoftBank Group has unveiled plans to invest up to €75 billion (approximately $87 billion) to develop and operate 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in France, marking the largest single AI infrastructure investment in European history. The first phase, valued at €45 billion, will deliver 3.1 GW of capacity across three sites in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031: Dunkirk, Bosquel, and Bouchain. This massive buildout is designed to provide the compute power needed to train and run next-generation AI models, rivaling similar efforts in the U.S. and China.

This move signals SoftBank's strategic pivot to position France—and Europe broadly—as a long-term AI hub. The scale of the investment dwarfs previous European commitments and comes amid rising demand for energy-intensive AI data centers. By concentrating capacity in one region, SoftBank aims to create economies of scale while leveraging France's relatively low-carbon nuclear energy grid. The deal also strengthens ties between Japan's tech giant and the French government, which has been actively courting AI investments. For professionals, this means increased cloud and compute availability for European AI startups, potentially lowering costs and latency for local AI workloads.