SoftBank Group has announced an ambitious plan to invest up to €75 billion (approximately $87 billion) to significantly expand data center infrastructure in France.

The initiative aims to develop and operate as much as 5 gigawatts of additional data center capacity, marking one of the company’s largest infrastructure commitments in Europe to date.

According to the announcement, the first phase of construction will focus on sites in Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain, located in the Hauts-de-France region.These facilities are expected to contribute around 3.1 gigawatts of capacity by 2031, forming a critical part of the broader rollout strategy.

SoftBank, which maintains investment and business ties with OpenAI, has positioned this project as a key step in strengthening its role in the global artificial intelligence and cloud computing ecosystem.

The company emphasized that the expansion is designed to support growing demand for high-performance computing infrastructure needed for AI workloads, cloud services, and data processing at scale.French officials have welcomed the announcement.

Economy Minister Roland Lescure described the investment as evidence of France’s strategic ambition under President Emmanuel Macron to become a central hub in the global AI value chain.The project also reflects broader European efforts to attract large-scale technology infrastructure investments amid increasing global competition.

The announcement comes at a time when data center development is becoming more politically and environmentally sensitive, particularly in the United States, where concerns about energy consumption, grid capacity, and electricity prices are rising.

Despite these challenges, SoftBank continues to expand its infrastructure footprint globally, including earlier plans to develop a data center in Ohio powered by a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas facility.The French project underscores the company’s long-term bet on AI-driven demand for computing power.