{"id":97737,"date":"2026-05-31T11:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=97737"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:35:09","slug":"softbank-to-invest-e75-billion-in-ai-projects-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/softbank-to-invest-e75-billion-in-ai-projects-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank to Invest \u20ac75 Billion in AI Projects in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group plans to invest approximately \u20ac75 billion in developing artificial intelligence infrastructure in France, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-05-30\/softbank-to-invest-some-75-billion-in-ai-in-france-reports-say\">Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The project involves the construction of data centers with a total capacity of 5 GW. The first phase includes \u20ac45 billion in investments to establish a 3.1 GW AI computing cluster in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031.<\/p>\n<p>SoftBank&#8217;s commitments largely stem from the personal relationship between the company&#8217;s founder, Masayoshi Son, and French President Emmanuel Macron. They met during the president&#8217;s visit to Japan earlier this year. During their discussions, the investor received a request for \u20ac100 billion and &#8220;began to seriously consider the matter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I was very impressed by how personally Emmanuel Macron is interested in ensuring France&#8217;s economic success, despite our investments being primarily focused in the US, as well as in Japan and Asia,&#8221; Son said in an interview with La Tribune.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>SoftBank&#8217;s initial plans include building <span data-descr=\"data center\" class=\"old_tooltip\">data centers<\/span> in Dunkirk, Bosc\u00e8le, and Bouchain. The company also plans to develop additional sites across France, &#8220;strengthening the country&#8217;s role as a leading European hub for next-generation digital infrastructure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>European company Schneider Electric has expressed readiness to partner at the Dunkirk site to create an infrastructure center for AI and robotics manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p>Macron is expected to officially announce the investments during the Choose France summit, an annual event aimed at enhancing France&#8217;s business appeal.<\/p>\n<p>SoftBank is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/trump-announces-500-billion-investment-in-ai-infrastructure\">Stargate initiative<\/a>, which aims to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the US. In March, the withdrawal of project partners \u2014 OpenAI and Oracle \u2014 from plans to expand data centers in Texas <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/investors-disillusioned-with-softbanks-bold-bet-on-openai\">significantly impacted<\/a> the Japanese company&#8217;s stock prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group plans to invest approximately \u20ac75 billion in developing artificial intelligence infrastructure in France, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"SoftBank plans \u20ac75 billion AI investment in France.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,134,52,1599],"class_list":["post-97737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-france","tag-investments","tag-softbank"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"11","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"SoftBank plans \u20ac75 billion AI investment in France.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97738,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97737\/revisions\/97738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}