French AI consortium Aether Infrastructure has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire the former Dumarey Powerglide factory in Strasbourg’s Port du Rhin district for its first data center. Formed to develop two AI data centers under the European Commission’s AI gigafactories program, Aether has also signed a lease allowing preliminary work on the FR-SXB1 complex to begin. The site will also host a biomass production plant.
The 90-hectare site previously housed a vehicle gearbox factory that Dumarey earmarked for closure in January, putting 320 jobs at risk.
Aether’s partners include hardware firms SiPearl and 2CRSi, real estate company Nhood, and Dassault Systèmes.v2CRSi will help establish an on-site facility to design, assemble, integrate, test, and qualify prefabricated data center modules for deployment at the site and sale to third parties. Aether aims to make the complex Europe’s largest industrial site dedicated to AI infrastructure.
The site has 25MW of grid power, with Aether exploring additional sources, including a biomass plant that would produce energy and biochar. Aether targets a 2027 opening for FR-SXB1 and plans to acquire its second campus, FR-SXB2, by year-end. The two sites are expected to provide 42MW combined. The consortium is seeking funding from the EU’s €20 billion AI gigafactories program, which aims to boost Europe’s computing capacity and digital sovereignty.
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