France and the United Arab Emirates are set to spend €30-50 billion ($31-52bn) on a 1GW AI data center and other AI investments.
The project was announced on Thursday following a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Emirati counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
A location for the AI campus has yet to be chosen, but it will be built somewhere in France. Alongside the data center, the two companies expect to invest in chips, talent development, and the establishment of virtual data embassies that will lead to sovereign AI and cloud infrastructures in both countries.
Few other details of the project have been announced, but a report from AFP said that the campus would be developed by "a consortium of Franco-Emirati champions,” including the MGX investment fund. Backed by the government of Abu Dhabi, MGX is one of the investors in OpenAI’s Stargate, which is aiming to build data center infrastructure worth $500 billion in the US over the next four years.
France is currently hosting an international AI summit, with leading figures from politics and the tech industry set to gather in Paris for talks on Monday.
As part of the summit, it could announce more data center investments. The country’s digital and AI minister, Clara Chappaz, said at an event on Thursday that the French government had identified 35 sites across the country suitable for data centers. These will be granted fast-track planning approval to aid developers.
Paris is one of Europe’s largest data center markets, and developments are springing up in other parts of France, too. This is partly because the country has access to a plentiful supply of clean nuclear energy, with 65 percent of French energy being supplied by nuclear plants.
Last November, DCD reported that French utility EDF was in talks with data center operators to supply power to three 1GW developments.
EDF had previously launched Project Giga, a scheme designed to meet the growing energy demand from artificial intelligence data centers. The project plans to leverage EDF’s land and grid connections to supply low-carbon power for the hyperscalers.
