Masayoshi Son, the head of SoftBank Group, has taken a new direction in his "AI gamble" - investing up to 75 billion euros (approximately RMB 591.8 billion) in France to build a large-scale computing cluster. According to people familiar with the matter, this investment was quickly promoted after French President Macron and Masayoshi Son had dinner in Tokyo in April this year. During the dinner, Macron introduced France’s rich nuclear energy resources and fast approval channels for artificial intelligence facilities to Son.
This commitment will also add a major achievement to Macron’s “Choose France” investment summit to be held next week.
Son Zhengyi said in an interview with the media: "SoftBank is very proud to make this major commitment to France. With its industrial strength, talent pool and national-level ambitions, France has the unique advantage of becoming the European AI infrastructure center."
Where does the money come from?
It is reported that SoftBank will first take the lead in investing 45 billion euros to build 3.1 gigawatts of computing capacity in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France by 2031, and then plans to continue to expand 2 gigawatts. This location is strategically located to not only serve the French local market, but also reach major European markets such as London, Brussels and Amsterdam.
If the 5 GW park is fully built, its power consumption will be equivalent to five standard nuclear power plants, or close to the peak power demand of New York City in the United States.
According to reports, SoftBank will also cooperate with Schneider Electric to create an industrial center integrating AI infrastructure and robot manufacturing at its facility in Dunkirk.
It should be noted that 75 billion euros is far from enough to build a 5 GW data center. According to a general algorithm, it may cost US$50 billion to build a 1 GW data center, covering land acquisition, engineering construction, power facilities and IT equipment procurement. Therefore, SoftBank’s French project is bound to need to introduce more undisclosed partners to co-finance.
In typical cases in the past, SoftBank only provided a small proportion of the initial equity funding, and the vast majority of the funds would be obtained through project financing in the form of debt financing.
At the same time, as SoftBank Group’s shares soared by more than 70% this year, Arm controlled by SoftBank soared by 220%, and coupled with the floating profits from the big bet on OpenAI, Son’s worth has reached 88.1 billion U.S. dollars.
