€109 billion for AI: where is data center money going in France?
In February 2025, France announced €109 billion of investment in artificial intelligence. Eighteen months later, announcements have multiplied, from SoftBank to Brookfield. But an investment pledge is not a data center. A look at who is funding what, and at what building a site really costs.
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Where does the €109 billion come from?
The figure was announced by Emmanuel Macron at the AI Action Summit in Paris on 10 February 2025. It refers to private investment announced for the following years, not public spending. The largest share comes from the United Arab Emirates: around €50 billion, provided through the MGX fund, notably for a one-gigawatt campus. This is the origin of the Fouju AI campus, now associated with Bpifrance, Mistral AI and Nvidia.
The rest is spread between infrastructure funds (including Canada's Brookfield), data center operators and AI players. A large share goes to physical infrastructure: buildings, electrical equipment, cooling, grid connection, then servers and GPUs.
2026: an even bigger second wave
The Choose France summit of May–June 2026 added a new layer. SoftBank committed to developing 5 GW of capacity in France for up to €75 billion, with a first phase of €45 billion for 3.1 GW in Hauts-de-France by 2031. Data4 confirmed €5 billion for a campus in Escaudain.
According to the Trendeo observatory, €88.3 billion of announcements concerned data centers in France in the first half of 2026 alone. Worldwide, France has become one of the leading destinations for foreign investment in this sector.
How much does a data center cost?
Cost is reasoned per megawatt of IT capacity. For a conventional colocation data center, it runs to millions of euros per megawatt. For sites dedicated to AI, the bill rises sharply: denser power supply, liquid cooling, increased redundancy. Mistral AI's data center in Bruyères-le-Châtel, for example, represents around $830 million for 44 MW, close to $19 million per megawatt, servers included.
The budget breaks down roughly into three blocks:
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Land and grid connection | land, source substation, high-voltage lines, roads and utilities |
| Building and technical equipment | civil works, high- and low-voltage electrical systems, UPS, generators, cooling production, fire safety, building management |
| IT equipment | servers, GPUs, storage, networking |
For AI sites, the third block can exceed the first two combined. This is also why operators install servers gradually, as demand grows.
Announcement, commitment, construction: three different things
A euro announced does not immediately become a construction site. In between come secured land, a connection contract with RTE, an environmental authorisation, a building permit, then often a period for legal challenges. The process frequently takes more than five years.
The best indicator to follow is therefore not the amount announced, but the capacity actually connected and commissioned. In May 2026, RTE had reserved around 18 GW for some 80 projects, while data centers already connected to the high-voltage grid totalled only 800 MW (see Access to power, the new bottleneck for data centers).
What this changes for the construction sector
These amounts translate into massive orders for civil works, electrical packages, HVAC and project management. The French national federation of public works (FNTP) estimates investment in French data center infrastructure at around €43 billion between 2025 and 2035, for the networks and structures around them alone. The challenge then becomes less financial than human: finding the engineers and teams able to deliver these sites (see How many engineers will it take to build tomorrow's data centers?).
Frequently asked questions
Is the €109 billion public money?
No. These are private investment commitments announced at the AI Summit in February 2025, including around €50 billion from the United Arab Emirates through MGX. The State acts mainly through Bpifrance, access to the power grid and simpler procedures.
How much does it cost to build a data center?
It depends on capacity and use. A site dedicated to AI costs much more per megawatt than a conventional colocation site: Mistral AI's data center in Bruyères-le-Châtel represents around $830 million for 44 MW, IT equipment included.
Who is the largest investor in data centers in France?
By announced amount, SoftBank, with up to €75 billion for 5 GW, including a first phase of €45 billion in Hauts-de-France.
Sources
- Usine Digitale, announcement of the €109 billion (in French)
- French National Assembly, written question on the Fouju project (in French)
- SoftBank Group, press release of 30 May 2026
- France Épargne, Trendeo H1 2026 review (in French)
- Datacenter Paris, costs and trends 2026 (in French)
- FNTP, the data center market (in French)
- Le Monde Informatique, foreign investment (in French)
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