SoftBank Group has committed up to €75 billion to build 5 GW of AI data centre capacity in France, its largest infrastructure investment in Europe and one of the biggest single-country AI commitments ever made.
• Only €45 billion and 3.1 GW are firm; the remaining €30 billion and 1.9 GW are plans, not contracts, a distinction that matters given SoftBank’s net debt of $122.9 billion.
• The global AI data centre market was valued at $147 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $811 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 23.9%.
Masayoshi Son and Emmanuel Macron met when the French president visited Japan earlier this year. What followed was one of the largest infrastructure commitments France has ever received from a foreign company.
SoftBank Group, the Tokyo-based investment conglomerate founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981, has announced it will invest up to €75 billion to develop and operate 5 GW of AI data centre capacity across France. The deal was unveiled at President Macron’s annual Choose France summit. SoftBank employs over 65,000 people globally. Its most significant current holdings include a ~90% stake in Arm Holdings, whose acquisition by Nvidia was announced in May 2026, after which SoftBank will hold under 10% of Nvidia and a 13% stake in OpenAI following $64.6 billion in cumulative investment, as TFN has covered in depth across its reporting on SoftBank’s OpenAI bets and its $40 billion bridge loan.
