France has attracted EUR 93 billion in foreign investment pledges at the 2026 Choose France summit, with SoftBank committing up to EUR 75 billion for AI infrastructure.
The annual summit, held at Versailles, brought together 71 investment projects that are expected to generate more than 15.600 jobs. The announcement comes as France's unemployment rate has climbed above 8%, a level that remains higher than the EU average. According to Reuters, President Emmanuel Macron framed the pledges as a milestone in repositioning France as a competitive destination for AI and digital infrastructure investment.
SoftBank's data centre commitment
SoftBank has committed EUR 45 billion to construct three data centres in the Hauts-de-France region, with a combined capacity of 3.1 gigawatts, targeting completion by 2031. The company's chief executive indicated the figure could rise to EUR 75 billion depending on the project's development.
The deal was reportedly initiated following a meeting between Macron and the SoftBank chief executive in Tokyo in April 2026 during a state visit, with both sides working to finalise terms in time for the summit.
SoftBank's investment in France forms part of a broader global AI infrastructure programme. The company has invested over USD 30 billion in OpenAI, holding an 11% stake in the developer, and has agreed to commit a further USD 30 billion to the same company over the course of 2026. SoftBank is also the primary backer of the USD 500 billion Stargate initiative, which is building out data centre capacity across the US.
Nuclear capacity as a competitive lever
A central element of France's pitch to AI investors is its electricity infrastructure. The country operates 57 nuclear reactors and currently exports electricity, which Macron has positioned as a structural advantage for power-intensive data centre operations. AI workloads require significant and sustained energy supply, making access to stable, low-carbon electricity a factor in infrastructure siting decisions.
The 2026 investment total is more than double the EUR 40.8 billion announced at the 2025 summit, and exceeds the combined total of all Choose France pledges recorded between 2018 and 2025, which stood at EUR 87 billion across 231 projects. The scale of SoftBank's commitment is a significant driver of that increase, though the broader programme spans 71 separate projects across sectors.
The data centre investment is expected to contribute to expanding Europe's AI computing capacity, which has lagged behind that of the US and China. Whether the pledged figures translate into construction timelines and operational capacity by 2031 will be a key metric for assessing the initiative's impact on Europe's AI infrastructure landscape.
