SoftBank Group will invest €45 billion over five years to build AI data centres in northern France, founder Masayoshi Son said, marking the largest single AI infrastructure commitment in Europe.
Back
SoftBank to invest €45 billion in French AI data centre buildout
SoftBank Group is betting €45 billion that France's nuclear-powered grid can fuel Europe's AI revolution, announcing the continent's largest data centre investment at the Choose France summit on Monday.
"The fact that the country is a producer and exporter of energy is absolutely decisive for investments in AI infrastructure," Son told La Tribune Dimanche in an interview published Saturday.
Two sites at Le Bosquel and Dunkirk will deliver more than 5 gigawatts of combined computing capacity, with operations starting in 2028 and 2031 respectively. The €45 billion commitment over five years is part of a broader €75 billion SoftBank plans to invest across France. The Hauts-de-France region, where both sites are located, benefits from proximity to nuclear generation and subsea cable landing stations connecting to the UK and North America.
The investment adds to SoftBank's global AI spending spree, which includes over $30 billion for an 11% stake in OpenAI. France has used the annual Choose France summit since 2018 to court foreign capital, and this deal positions the country as a potential European hub for AI infrastructure at a time when the continent faces growing dependence on US and Asian cloud providers.
Why France's Energy Mix Matters for AI
France generates about 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, giving it some of the lowest industrial electricity prices in Europe. For hyperscale data centres that consume 100 to 500 megawatts each, power costs represent the single largest operating expense after hardware. Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services have all announced European data centre expansions in the past year, but none at the scale of SoftBank's French commitment. A 5-gigawatt campus could power roughly 4 million homes, illustrating the scale of energy required for the AI buildout.
The timing is strategic. Europe's data centre capacity is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of about 15% through 2030, driven by AI workloads, but the continent has lagged the US and Asia in attracting hyperscale investment. SoftBank's move could trigger a wave of follow-on investment from other Japanese and Asian conglomerates looking to diversify their AI infrastructure exposure beyond the US market.
What It Means for Investors
SoftBank shares trade at a discount to their sum-of-parts valuation, weighed down by the conglomerate's debt-funded Vision Fund strategy. The French commitment adds to a capital allocation plan that has already deployed more than $30 billion into OpenAI and billions more into Arm Holdings, in which SoftBank owns a 90% stake. If the data centres come online as scheduled in 2028, they could generate recurring revenue from cloud and AI compute leases, shifting SoftBank's profile from venture investor to infrastructure operator.
The company's ability to execute on such a large construction timeline will be closely watched by investors tracking the AI infrastructure theme. For context, Microsoft alone spent more than $80 billion on data centre CapEx in its most recent fiscal year, while Alphabet committed $75 billion. SoftBank's €45 billion French bet, while large by European standards, represents a fraction of the total hyperscale spending globally — but it signals that Japan's most aggressive AI investor sees France as a viable alternative to the US for large-scale compute buildouts.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
