Data centres in France: the mirage of 75 billion euros

France does indeed possess a considerable strategic advantage: its nuclear electricity, relatively abundant, dispatchable and decarbonised. But it risks transforming this asset into a mere argument of political communication rather than into a real industrial advantage.

The recent announcements around SoftBank and the French data centres are spectacular: up to 75 billion euros of investment, including a first phase of 45 billion euros to create 3.1 GW of AI data-centre capacity in the Hauts-de-France by 2031. SoftBank even announces a total ambition of 5 GW in France.

But it is precisely there that the problem begins: in artificial intelligence, the competition is not won with press releases. It is won with real time, with installed power, with plugged-in GPUs, with immediately available energy, with rapid authorisations, with rapid connections and with a mastered industrial chain.

1. The figure of 75 billion impresses, but it masks a very slow timetable

The SoftBank announcement speaks of 5 GW of capacity in the end, but the first phase targets 3.1 GW by 2031. This means that France celebrates today a power that will not be fully operational for several years.

A power of 3.1 GW, if it functioned continuously all year round, would represent

3.1 GW × 8,760 hours = 27,156 GWh per year, that is about 27.2 TWh per year.

A power of 5 GW, still in continuous operation, would represent

5 GW × 8,760 hours = 43,800 GWh per year, that is about 43.8 TWh per year.

By way of comparison, RTE estimates that the data centres already present in France consume today about 10 TWh per year, that is about 2% of French electricity consumption. In other words, the SoftBank project alone, if it really reaches 5 GW, could represent on its own more than four times the current consumption of all French data centres combined.

2. While France announces 2031, xAI built Colossus in 122 days

The comparison with Colossus, the AI supercomputer of xAI in Memphis, is brutal. xAI claims to have built Colossus in 122 days, then to have doubled its capacity in 92 days to reach 200,000 H100 GPUs in a single interconnected cluster. NVIDIA confirms that the infrastructure and the supercomputer were built in 122 days, and that only 19 days elapsed between the arrival of the first rack and the start of training.

France announces gigawatts for 2031. The United States plugs in tens or hundreds of thousands of GPUs in a few months.

3. The real French bottleneck: connection, procedures, delays

France has nuclear, engineers, a historically robust electrical network, an interesting geographical position and a low-carbon image. But it suffers from a chronic ill: administrative slowness, regulatory heaviness, the piling-up of norms, environmental procedures, complex connections, possible challenges and fiscal uncertainty.

In the economy of AI, electricity is not enough. One needs the electricity available at the right place, at the right moment, with the right power, the right connection, the right authorisation, the right local acceptability and the right speed of execution.

4. French electricity is a real advantage, but not sufficient

French nuclear attracts. But the energy advantage is not enough to create technological sovereignty. One can host machines in France while remaining dependent on American chips, American software, American models, American clouds and foreign capital.

A foreign data centre installed in France is not automatically a French industrial victory. It may be simply a French consumption of electricity in the service of a foreign value chain.

5. The political mirage: confusing investment on French soil and French power

A foreign investment in France can create activity, construction-site jobs, tax revenues and orders for certain suppliers. But that does not mean that France controls the technology.

The real question is therefore not only: how many billions arrive in France?

The real question is: what share of the value will remain in France?

If France provides the land, the electricity, the public procedures, the local acceptability and part of the network, but the ownership, the chips, the models, the software, the patents, the cloud revenues and the strategic decisions remain elsewhere, then it is not a sovereignty. It is hosting.

6. Data centres create few durable direct jobs

A data centre is extremely capital-intensive. It requires a lot of capital, a lot of electricity, a lot of land and a lot of equipment. But once built, it does not necessarily create thousands of permanent local jobs.

The value is not principally in the building. It is in the chips, the models, the data, the software, the services sold, the cloud subscriptions, the AI applications, the patents and the ecosystem effects.

7. Colossus reveals a difference of administrative civilisation

Colossus is not only a technical feat. It is a political revealer. In the United States, the best industrial actors seek first to deliver, plug in, test, correct, enlarge. In France, the State loves to announce, plan, frame, regulate, consult, control, certify, classify, prioritise.

France has capable engineers. It has capable industrialists. It has capable sites. But it often has a system that slows down the capable to reassure the incapable.

8. What should be done

France should create real AI industrial corridors with guaranteed electrical connection, land purged of blockages, pre-examined authorisations, enforceable deadlines and a one-stop shop that is really decision-making.

It should condition the major advantages granted to operators on counterparts: research in France, qualified jobs, training of engineers, access to computing for French SMEs, participation of French actors, energy transparency, long-term contracts with EDF, heat recovery when relevant.

France does not need a new summit where billions are announced. It needs a public dashboard indicating, each quarter: power really connected, GPUs really installed, jobs really created, French companies really benefiting, real consumption, real deadlines, real delays, value really captured in France.

Conclusion: France has the electricity, but it does not have the speed

France is not condemned. It even has an exceptional card with its nuclear. But it is in danger if it believes that an announcement of 75 billion is enough to make it an AI power.

Colossus was built in 122 days. France celebrates infrastructures planned for 2031.

That is the real subject. AI will not wait for us.