SoftBank’s €75B bet: can France handle 5GW of AI power
softbank will invest up to €75b to build 5gw of data center capacity in france, marking its largest european ai infrastructure spend to date.
softbank committed up to €75b to build ai-focused data centers in dunkirk, bosquel, and bouchain, targeting 3.1gw of operational capacity by 2031 and scaling to 5gw total. this represents softbank's largest ai infrastructure investment in europe, driven by the firm's dual role as investor and customer of openai. the investment highlights a strategic pivot to france, where government policy aggressively supports the ai value chain, contrasting with growing local resistance to data center development in the us.