With Schneider Electric, SoftBank plans to build an industrial cluster at the Port of Dunkirk, built around two plants, one run by SoftBank to make enclosures and one run by Schneider to integrate data center power modules
That pulls SoftBank's automation work into prefabricated electrical kit, extending the company’s vertical integration — which already spans Arm, robotics, and its own water-based data center batteries — even further. EDF chairman Bernard Fontana said in the announcement that the Bouchain project showed France's ability to host large-scale digital infrastructure on "competitive, sovereign and low-carbon electricity."
The French investment adds to a global spending run that includes the Ohio project and more than $30 billion sunk into OpenAI for an 11% stake. SoftBank carries over $130 billion in debt and took a $40 billion bridge loan in March to fund its latest OpenAI investment. The €75 billion figure is also a ceiling; only the €45 billion first phase and its 3.1GW are firm commitments, with the remaining sites described as plans for later.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/softbank-to-spend-up-to-75-billion-on-french-ai-data-centers#main
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