Europe has been talking about AI sovereignty for years. Now a group of French companies is trying to actually build it.
A consortium called AION, which includes private equity firm Ardian alongside some of France’s biggest corporate names, has submitted a formal bid for the European Union’s AI Gigafactory project. The proposed investment: approximately €10 billion ($11.6 billion) to construct a large-scale AI data center campus in France.
The bid, announced on May 20, represents one of the most ambitious infrastructure plays in European tech history. It also signals that private capital is increasingly willing to bet big on the idea that Europe can compete with the US and China in raw AI computational power, a race it is currently losing.
What AION is actually building
The AION consortium isn’t a startup with a pitch deck and a dream. It’s a coalition of established French firms spanning energy, telecom, cloud computing, and consulting. Members include Ardian, Artefact, Bull, Capgemini, EDF, iliad Group, Orange, and Scaleway.
