Jun 02, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
France has secured billions of dollars in new investments across data centers, cloud services, and artificial intelligence. At this week’s Choose France Summit, President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a series of investment commitments tied to data center development and broader digital infrastructure. The event featured 71 announcements totaling €93 billion ($108 billion) in investment, with a significant portion directed toward digital infrastructure projects, amounting to tens of billions of euros.
Investment firm Brookfield plans to raise its spending on AI-related infrastructure in France to €30 billion ($34 billion), up from the €20 billion ($23.2 billion) announced at the AI Summit in February 2025. As part of its expansion, the company is developing two campuses—one in the E-Valley site in Cambrai and another AI-focused facility in Escaudain, located in the Hauts-de-France region—both of which will be built and operated by Data4.
Separately, the Campus AI joint venture, backed by MGX, Bpifrance, Nvidia, and Mistral, is preparing to select a second development site expected to attract around €7.5 billion ($8.7 billion) in investment, although full details have not yet been disclosed. The consortium is currently building its first project in Fouju, Seine-et-Marne, near Paris, where the initial phase of three buildings is scheduled to go live in 2028. Once fully developed, the Fouju campus will comprise 12 data centers across 70 hectares with a projected capacity of around 1.4GW.
Nebius is developing a 240MW data center in Béthune, Hauts-de-France, by redeveloping a former Bridgestone tire plant. First reported in February, the €8 billion ($9.3bn) project is expected to begin operations in phases from 2026. UAE-based Phoenix Group is also building an 18MW AI facility near Lyon as part of a broader 1GW European expansion, including 500MW in France. SoftBank is planning a major French build-out of up to 5GW of capacity, while Verne and Ardian are developing a 500MW site outside Paris to support Iliad’s AI gigafactory bid. German software firm SAP is planning three data center sites in Île-de-France by early 2027 for a sovereign cloud and AI region, though it is unclear whether these will be self-built or leased.
