HomeSoftBank Invests €7.5B in European Computing, Plans Giant Data Center Cluster in France
Global construction of artificial intelligence computing infrastructure has once again attracted a major investment from a tech giant. On May 30, Japanese investment firm SoftBank Group publicly announced an ambitious expansion plan in France, committing to invest up to 75 billion euros (around 87 billion USD) to significantly increase local data center capacity.
According to the official blueprint, SoftBank aims to develop and operate an additional 5 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity. The project will roll out in phases, with the first phase centered on the locations of Loon-Plage, Bosquel, and Bouchain. Following the timeline, these facilities are expected to deliver 3.1 gigawatts of computing power to the Hauts-de-France region by 2031.
Notably, SoftBank is not only a core investor in AI giant OpenAI but also a major consumer of its service technologies. SoftBank stated that this comprehensive deployment in France will represent the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure investment the company has ever made in mainland Europe.
In response to this major investment, officials from the French Ministry of Economy gave it high praise, noting that the project's execution marks an important milestone for the French government's efforts to position itself as a central hub in the global AI value chain.
Amid the intensifying global AI arms race, energy consumption and construction of data centers are facing policy and public opinion disputes across various regions. In the United States, for example, concerns over grid load, electricity prices, and environmental ecosystems have led to rising opposition to new data centers in many areas. Nevertheless, SoftBank previously disclosed plans to build a new data center in Ohio and prepare a 9.2 GW natural gas power plant. Now, by shifting investment to Europe and establishing a high-standard second front in France, SoftBank is set to further reshape the underlying landscape of embodied intelligence and large-scale AI computing power worldwide.
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Global construction of artificial intelligence computing infrastructure has once again attracted a major investment from a tech giant. On May 30, Japanese investment firm SoftBank Group publicly announced an ambitious expansion plan in France, committing to invest up to 75 billion euros (around 87 billion USD) to significantly increase local data center capacity.
According to the official blueprint, SoftBank aims to develop and operate an additional 5 gigawatts (GW) of data center capacity. The project will roll out in phases, with the first phase centered on the locations of Loon-Plage, Bosquel, and Bouchain. Following the timeline, these facilities are expected to deliver 3.1 gigawatts of computing power to the Hauts-de-France region by 2031.
Notably, SoftBank is not only a core investor in AI giant OpenAI but also a major consumer of its service technologies. SoftBank stated that this comprehensive deployment in France will represent the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure investment the company has ever made in mainland Europe.
In response to this major investment, officials from the French Ministry of Economy gave it high praise, noting that the project's execution marks an important milestone for the French government's efforts to position itself as a central hub in the global AI value chain.
Amid the intensifying global AI arms race, energy consumption and construction of data centers are facing policy and public opinion disputes across various regions. In the United States, for example, concerns over grid load, electricity prices, and environmental ecosystems have led to rising opposition to new data centers in many areas. Nevertheless, SoftBank previously disclosed plans to build a new data center in Ohio and prepare a 9.2 GW natural gas power plant. Now, by shifting investment to Europe and establishing a high-standard second front in France, SoftBank is set to further reshape the underlying landscape of embodied intelligence and large-scale AI computing power worldwide.
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