‘Choose France’ Draws Record €93bn as Macron Bets on AI, but SoftBank’s Massive Data...

French President Emmanuel Macron has secured a record €93 billion ($108 billion) in investment commitments through this year's Choose France summit, underscoring Paris' growing ambition to position itself as Europe's artificial intelligence powerhouse.

However, the headline figure masks a striking reality: nearly half of the pledged investment is tied to a single project backed by SoftBank Group, highlighting how the global race for AI infrastructure is reshaping investment priorities across Europe.

The 71 projects unveiled at the annual investment summit are expected to create more than 15,600 jobs, providing a boost for France at a time when unemployment remains above the European Union average, and economic growth across the bloc is under pressure. For Macron, the announcements represent another attempt to demonstrate that France can attract large-scale international capital even as competition intensifies among countries seeking to host the next generation of AI infrastructure.

The investment wave is buoyed by SoftBank's plan to spend €45 billion on three massive data centers in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031. The Japanese technology investor indicated that the figure could eventually rise to €75 billion, potentially making it one of the largest AI infrastructure investments ever announced in Europe.

Speaking ahead of the summit, SoftBank founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son described the project as part of a broader effort to ensure Europe does not fall behind the United States and China in computing capacity.

"It's a massive size of investment coming," Son said, adding that the development could help make France "the center of Europe" for artificial intelligence.

The project reflects a dramatic acceleration in SoftBank's global AI ambitions. The company has already invested more than $30 billion in OpenAI and agreed to commit an additional $30 billion during 2026. It is also spearheading financing for the $500 billion Stargate initiative in the United States, one of the most ambitious data-center expansion programmes ever undertaken.

The French investment, therefore, places the country squarely within SoftBank's broader strategy of building the physical infrastructure needed to support increasingly powerful AI systems.

Building On France's Nuclear Energy

For Macron, the investment validates a strategy built around one of France's most distinctive advantages: abundant nuclear-generated electricity. While many countries are struggling to meet the enormous energy requirements of AI data centers, France's fleet of 57 nuclear reactors provides a relatively stable and low-carbon source of power.

The French government has increasingly marketed that advantage to global technology firms, arguing that AI leadership will depend not only on software and semiconductors but also on access to reliable electricity.

"France has been exporting electricity power," Son said. "We can convert electricity, raw material, into more high-value intelligence, so France can export intelligence."

That message aligns closely with Macron's vision of transforming France from a traditional industrial economy into a strategic hub for AI computing. The president said the SoftBank announcement showed Europe was beginning to close a long-standing gap in computing capacity.

"For us it's a great achievement," Macron said. "We are clearly bridging the gap we had in computing capacity in Europe."

Beyond the headline investment figures, the summit shows investors are increasingly funneling money into AI infrastructure, cloud computing facilities, and semiconductor-related projects rather than traditional manufacturing sectors. The enormous scale of SoftBank's commitment highlights how data centers are becoming the equivalent of strategic industrial assets in the AI era.

Another point to draw from the project is the intensifying geopolitical competition. The United States continues to dominate AI development through companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia, while China is investing heavily in domestic computing capabilities. Europe, by comparison, has struggled to produce technology champions of comparable scale.

SoftBank's decision to anchor a major AI infrastructure project in France offers Europe an opportunity to strengthen its position in a sector viewed as critical to economic competitiveness and national security.

Son suggested urgency was essential.

"The U.S. is going fast. China is going fast. Europe, Japan, Asia have to also go fast, not to be left out," he said.

The speed at which the agreement materialized also reflects Macron's increasingly aggressive approach to economic diplomacy. Son recounted meeting the French president during a state visit to Tokyo in April.

"He asked me, 'Masa, are you quick?' I said, 'I am quick,'" Son said, describing how both sides rushed to finalize the project before this year's summit.

Since its launch in 2018, the Choose France initiative has become a cornerstone of Macron's investment strategy. Before this year's event, the summit had generated 231 projects worth a combined €87 billion. The latest €93 billion pledge alone exceeds the cumulative total announced during the programme's first several years.

Whether all announced investments materialize remains to be seen, as large-scale projects often evolve. Yet the scale of the commitments signals that France has become one of the primary battlegrounds in the global contest to build the infrastructure underpinning the AI economy.