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Out of the €75 billion announced by SoftBank to develop up to 5 GW of AI data center capacity in France, €45 billion corresponds to a firm commitment of 3.1 GW by 2031; the remaining €30 billion - which would bring the project to 5 GW - are conditional on the successful execution of phase 1. This is the divergence that the official communication glosses over. The announcement was made on May 31, 2026, at the Choose France summit and was personally delivered by Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of the Japanese group, following a trip by Emmanuel Macron to Tokyo and an exclusive interview granted to La Tribune Dimanche on May 30, 2026.
“€75 billion in total, including €45 billion by 2031, in the Hauts-de-France.”
Masayoshi Son, La Tribune Dimanche (May 30, 2026) - the remaining €30 billion are conditional on the execution of phase 1: 3.1 GW deployed before triggering the next tranche.
Three Sites in Hauts-de-France, 3.1 GW by 2031
Phase 1 is anchored in three sites in northern France - Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain, targeting a capacity of 3.1 GW by 2031. At full extension, the targeted 5 GW would represent about three times the AI data center capacity installed in France by the end of 2024, estimated at around 1.6 GW according to Synergy Research (Q4 2024). The confirmed industrial partner is Schneider Electric, whose CEO Olivier Blum states that “the challenge of AI is to provide both speed and energy efficiency at a large scale” (freely translated). The industrial cluster at the Port of Dunkirk will combine a SoftBank assembly plant and a Schneider Electric power module integration unit.
However, one point weighs on the announced trajectory: official communications do not specify how 3.1 GW, then 5 GW will be connected. EDF figures in the scheme as the State's energy partner, but neither RTE nor EDF have publicly validated a connection schedule for the three sites - while for comparison, 5 GW is equivalent to about three EPR2 nuclear units (based on a unit electrical power of about 1.6 GW), a comparison to be handled with caution since the IT-connected power of a data center does not equate with the installed electrical power of a reactor. The network feasibility, a primary condition for activating phase 2, remains at this stage a factual void.
The Financial Signature of the “Firm” SoftBank
The commitment is borne by an investor under pressure. SoftBank Group holds 11% of OpenAI's capital and, according to SoftBank's FY2025 annual report (published in May 2026), its Vision Fund recorded a gain of $46 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2026, mainly driven by the revaluation of OpenAI, valued at $852 billion. In March 2026, S&P placed the group's rating under negative outlook: according to the agency, the debt/assets ratio (LTV) could approach 25% by integrating the additional $30 billion earmarked for OpenAI for 2026, a reading also echoed by the JCR rating agency (April 2026 report). According to figures communicated by SoftBank in La Tribune Dimanche, the group's European portfolio amounts to about €50 billion: adding €45 billion in firm infrastructure capex doubles the European exposure - in an activity, data center operation, foreign to the conglomerate's historic venture capital investment business.
The media framing betrays the fragility of the total figure. The Wall Street Journal headlined $52 billion, equivalent to phase 1, whereas the Élysée and La Tribune Dimanche highlight the €75 billion. The gap between $52 billion (WSJ) and €75 billion (Élysée) represents 40 to 45% according to the two published figures, reflecting an analytical reading of the conditional. A direct precedent concerning the same actor: in the United States, the Stargate project announced in January 2025 at $100 billion had only materialized to the tune of $15 billion twelve months later according to The Information, a 15% execution rate. ProPublica further notes that the “given word” of SoftBank on American job commitments has historically translated into a delivery rate of about 20%.
Choose France, Seven Years of Promises and a Weighing Precedent
The announcement is part of a well-established mechanics. Since its inception, Choose France has accumulated about €87 billion in promised investments, some of which have not yet materialized into visible projects. The most telling precedent is that of the AI Action Summit of February 2025: the €20.8 billion highlighted in May 2025 by the General Directorate of Enterprises concretized commitments made at the AI Summit, mainly the €20 billion Brookfield partnership - but as of June 1, 2026, no construction phase has been publicly documented for these Canadian hubs. In comparison, the most favorable Choose France precedent remains the Amazon and Microsoft envelope announced at Choose France 2024, in the order of magnitude of several billion euros according to the communications from the General Directorate of Enterprises, now largely in construction or operation phase.
Reported to this history, the SoftBank commitment alone constitutes nearly twice the total of other Choose France 2026 announcements combined. The operational reference is across the Atlantic: Stargate, announced in January 2025 at $100 billion, delivered $15 billion twelve months later, a 15% execution rate. Applied to the firm €45 billion French commitment, this ratio would bring the actually engaged investment by June 2027 to about €6.7 billion - a fraction of the displayed envelope, and the market indicator that infrastructure operators' CFOs will look at first.