SoftBank Pledges Up to €75 Billion for 5 GW of AI Data Centers in France

SoftBank Group announced May 31 a commitment to develop and operate 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in France, an investment of up to €75 billion that marks the company's largest AI infrastructure commitment in Europe and the largest single foreign direct investment pledge in French history. A first phase comprising an initial €45 billion will deliver 3.1 GW of capacity in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031, with data centers in Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel and Bouchain.

SoftBank said it will partner with French engineering company Schneider Electric to develop a large-scale industrial production cluster in Dunkirk as part of the buildout, which the government says will create thousands of high-skilled jobs. The pledge was unveiled in connection with President Emmanuel Macron's 2026 Choose France summit and broke overnight US time, with CNBC and The Japan Times both reporting the plan on May 31.

The commitment ranks among the largest AI infrastructure outlays placed by a single company anywhere in the world, and lands amid an escalating global race for sovereign AI compute capacity in which European governments have courted hyperscale investment to reduce dependence on US-hosted infrastructure.