SoftBank Pledges €75 Billion to Build French Data Centers

The Japanese investment giant says it will develop up to 5 gigawatts of new data center capacity in France, one of the largest single AI infrastructure commitments ever made in Europe.

SoftBank announced plans to invest up to €75 billion in French data center infrastructure.
The firm targets up to 5 gigawatts of additional data center capacity to be developed and operated in France.
The announcement positions France as a major hub for AI compute infrastructure on the continent.
No completion timeline was disclosed, though the scale of the pledge exceeds most comparable European AI investment announcements to date.
The move follows a broader SoftBank push into AI infrastructure spending globally.

SoftBank announced Friday it will invest up to €75 billion to build and operate data centers in France, targeting up to 5 gigawatts of new capacity in what would rank among the largest AI infrastructure commitments ever made on the continent.

The Japanese investment group said the goal is to develop and operate the additional capacity inside France, though the firm did not specify a completion date or phased spending schedule.

Five gigawatts represents a significant slice of European data center demand. Industry estimates put total European data center capacity in the low tens of gigawatts, meaning SoftBank's stated target alone would materially reshape the regional supply picture.

France has aggressively courted AI infrastructure investment in recent years, backed by cheap nuclear power and government incentives designed to attract hyperscale compute projects. SoftBank's pledge is the latest and largest to land in Paris's column.

SoftBank did not name construction partners or grid connection agreements. Details of the investment structure and phasing are expected to follow in subsequent announcements.