SoftBank Group announced today that it plans to spend as much as €75 billion (round $87 billion) to increase information middle capability in France.
The objective, the agency stated, is to develop and function as much as 5 gigawatts of further information middle capability. The primary section of the plan entails constructing information facilities in Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain to ship 3.1 gigawatts of capability to the Hauts-de-France area by 2031.
SoftBank, which is both an investor in and customer of OpenAI, says this can be its largest AI infrastructure funding in Europe.
In a press release, French financial minister Roland Lescure described the announcement as a “testomony to President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to place France as a number one vacation spot all alongside the AI worth chain.”
In the US, opposition to data center construction is heating up over environmental considerations, in addition to questions on how information facilities have an effect on {the electrical} grid and utility costs. Nonetheless, SoftBank earlier introduced plans to construct a knowledge middle in Ohio, powered by a new 9.2 gigawatt natural gas plant.
