Japanese tech investor SoftBank will spend 75 billion euros (US$87.5 billion) on artificial intelligence infrastructure in France, its founder Masayoshi Son told a French newspaper in an interview released Saturday."This will be the largest investment in Europe in infrastructure related to artificial intelligence: 75 billion euros in total," Son told La Tribune Dimanche weekly ahead of a French investment conference hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.
He said it included 45 billion euros to be spent by 2031 on data centers in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
French electrics giant Schneider will be a partner in the huge project, its chief executive Olivier Blum told AFP.
"This is a significant partnership, a major project, the largest ever undertaken in France" in the sector, said Blum.
"Up to now, there is roughly 1.5 gigawatts of installed data center capacity in France at the end of 2025, and what's being announced now is that there will be an initial phase of 3.0 gigawatts followed by a second phase that could reach up to 5.0," he added.
