SoftBank to spend up to $87 billion on French AI data centers, country offers ample nuclear grid that US sites lack
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SoftBank Group will commit as much as €75 billion ($87 billion) to build five gigawatts of AI data center capacity across France, with a first €45 billion ($52 billion) phase delivering 3.1GW in the northern Hauts-de-France region by 2031.
Key facts
SoftBank Group will commit as much as €75 billion ($87 billion) to build five gigawatts of AI data center capacity across France, with a first €45 billion ($52 billion) phase delivering 3.1GW
SoftBank carries over $130 billion in debt and took a $40 billion bridge loan in March to fund its latest OpenAI investment
The French investment adds to a global spending run that includes the Ohio project and more than $30 billion sunk into OpenAI for an 11% stake
What France offers is electricity: the country draws roughly 70% of its power from nuclear reactors run by EDF, is the world's largest net electricity exporter, and posts industrial power prices well
Summary
What France offers is electricity: the country draws roughly 70% of its power from nuclear reactors run by EDF, is the world's largest net electricity exporter, and posts industrial power prices well under half the UK's.
That pulls SoftBank's automation work into prefabricated electrical kit, extending the company’s vertical integration, which already spans Arm, robotics, and its own water-based data center batteries, even further.