Scale of Consumption: SoftBank’s AI Data Center Project in France Expands to 5 GW

Update to infrastructure reports. The AI rush is consuming Europe’s energy sector at an alarming rate. On June 1, 2026, it was revealed that the SoftBank Group and Sesterce project in France, announced yesterday, is even more massive: the target capacity of the AI data centers will not be 1, but a colossal 5 gigawatts (GW).

5 GW is equivalent to the output of five modern nuclear power units or the consumption of an entire metropolis. The project’s budget, estimated at €45 billion in the initial phase with prospects of growing to €75 billion, demonstrates that computing has become the most capital-intensive sector of the global economy since the oil and gas infrastructure boom. Investors are betting on France due to its stable nuclear energy, capable of satisfying the insatiable carbon and energy footprint of training AGI models. The physical provisioning of artificial intelligence is definitively merging with heavy industry.

Source: SoftBank Group / Reuters