The announcement that Softbank is invest up to €75 billion to build AI data center capacity in France is being framed in Paris as a landmark moment for Europe’s AI ambitions, and for France’s in particular, and a concrete expression also of the EU’s push for digital sovereignty, covered at length in these pages recently. And at face value, it appears to align quite neatly with that agenda: large-scale compute infrastructure anchored on European soil, powered by France’s nuclear electricity, integrated into an industrial cluster model that links energy, manufacturing, and AI grunt.

But the sovereignty question is more complex. The investment is led by Japan’s Softbank, and not by a US hyperscaler (Microsoft, Google, or Amazon), nor by a US model builder (Anothropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta) – an absence that may itself be significant given the geopolitical sensitivity around US dominance in cloud and AI infrastructure. Instead, Europe is attracting capital from a non-European, non-US actor that is deeply embedded in global AI financing and partnerships, mostly notably with OpenAI.

Which raises an open question: is this a step toward European control over its AI future, or a strategic relocation of infrastructure built and financed by external players? The deal suggests a form of sovereignty just through location – where Europe hosts, manages, and regulates the physical infrastructure, even while ownership, financing, and platform ecosystems are globally distributed. The question doing the rounds right now – with lots of these hybrid mix-and-match setups, all paying lip service to sovereignty – is whether Europe is building genuine autonomy, or not.

The framing from the French government is right on, entirely consistent with broader EU strategy – to attract hyperscale AI infrastructure via ready subsidies and quicker permits, anchor data centers in countries with strong low-carbon baseload power (like nuclear in France, via EDF), and build industrial “clusters” that tie together energy, manufacturing, and compute. But it is more like a sovereign hosting strategy rather than sovereign ownership of the AI stack, and this looks like a (very fair) attempt by France to be AI-infrastructure landlord in Europe.

To the country’s credit, its real sovereignty lever is energy, rather than data or systems, or straight tech-tech. The country’s old industrial sites, probably former power stations and industrial land, well placed (in the country’s northernmost region) to get across European sea and land borders, are being repurposed Bouchain, say, is an EDF-linked industrial energy site, and EDF is France’s main nuclear operator. The government, with the government owned energy sector, is tying the project to the country’s low-carbon, nuclear-heavy electricity system.

Anyway, here’s a straighter news report. Lots to chew over…

James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News

RCR Top Stories

New AI landlord: Softbank’s €75bn to build 5GW of AI capacity in France is seen as a breakthrough for EU sovereignty. But the money and most of the ecosystem is foreign, albeit not all American. Which raises (the same old) questions.

256 Cores at 2nm: AMD has started volume production of its sixth-gen EPYC ‘Venice’ CPUs on TSMC’s 2nm node, targeting agentic AI with up to 256 cores and big bandwidth gains, alongside a more efficient ‘Verano’ line for cloud inference.

6G foundry models: 6G is shifting to AI-native “foundry” models where networks are designed and optimised with AI from the ground up, enabling adaptive infrastructure, distributed compute, and tighter integration – says Qualcomm.

Marvell AI growth: Marvell raised its AI infra outlook after strong hyperscaler demand boosted networking, optical interconnect, and custom silicon units, with the company now expecting faster revenue growth through fiscal 2028.

HK fiber and FWA: Hong Kong’s fixed comms market is forecast to grow modestly through 2030 as fiber and FWA adoption support broadband revenues, while operators adapt to continued declines in fixed voice services.

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What We’re Reading

Big DC? Mais oui: Softbank is to invest €75bn in 5 GW of data center capacity in France, starting with 3.1 GW in the Hauts-de-France region – announced as part of the 2026 Choose France summit hosted by President Macron.

Microwave buy: Telefónica has agreed to (re-)acquire Lineox from Asterion Industrial Partners, regaining control of 11k microwave links that connect rural mobile towers. The deal strengthens resilience and rural connectivity in Spain.

Low D2C usage: Juniper Research says the number of monthly D2C users will rise from 17.4m to 133m in 2031, driven by MNOs, plus the entry of new NTN operators such as AST SpaceMobile. But usage will remain below expectations.

5G showstoppers: EE is going to serve up 5G Advanced (5G+ in its marketing) to 25 big UK events and festivals this summer, as well as to 30 towns. It has an ad campaign to boot. Cue ultra-reliable guitar riffs and low-latency wheel spins.

New Ziggo chief: Liberty Global is to appoint VodafoneZiggo chief Stephen van Rooyen as CEO of the newly-formed Ziggo Group in the Benelux region, which will combine VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Telenet in Belgium.

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