Masayoshi Son said SoftBank will invest 75 billion euros in France on artificial-intelligence-related infrastructure, a plan he described as the company’s biggest such push in Europe. The SoftBank founder said 45 billion euros of that total would be deployed by 2031 in the Hauts-de-France region, where the group plans sites in Bosquel and Dunkerque.
Son, 68, cast the investment as part of a broader race to build the computing backbone for AI. The data centers are intended to help France become a central hub for AI manufacturing and computing power, and the company said the sites are expected to come online in 2028 and 2031.
The scale is striking even for SoftBank, which was founded in 1981 and has built a reputation as one of the world’s biggest investors in telecoms, technology and AI. The group owns 11 percent of OpenAI and has been active in Europe for more than 15 years, with a European portfolio worth nearly 50 billion euros. Its Vision Fund has been active in the EU since 2017 and backs 35 to 40 companies there, representing about 10 billion euros of investment, including Wayve, Revolut, ABB Robotics and Vestiaire Collective.
SoftBank said the France plan would be its largest AI-infrastructure investment in Europe, even though it already has a heavy footprint on the continent and major interests in the United States and Japan. That contrast underlines both the ambition of the French project and the question left hanging over it: how the 75 billion euros will be financed across the full schedule beyond 2031.
The investment is also tied to a partnership with Schneider Electric and a target of more than 5 gigawatts of capacity, about three times France’s current level. Son said the announcement would be made at the Choose France summit, making the event a stage for one of the most aggressive AI-infrastructure commitments yet outlined in Europe.
