France joins the AI datacentre express with $20bn deal

Brookfield Asset Management has announced a €20 billion infrastructure investment programme for AI datacentre infrastructure in France.

$15bn will fund a tripling of AI datacentres across the country with $5bn for data transfer, chip storage and energy generation.

The datacentre investment will be led by Brookfield’s portfolio company, Data4, one of Europe’s largest data entre developers, headquartered in Paris. Data4 has existing plans to build over 500 MW of data centre capacity located across several regions in France, with an ambition to triple that by 2030 using the additional investment.

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This follows a similar $14bn deal in the UK and the $100bn Stargate deal in the US.

“The €20 billion investment by Brookfield notably through Data4 will allow France to remain in the race alongside major AI players,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “We have the knowledge, the talents, and the decarbonized energy needed to accelerate in AI. We must not slow down, the world is accelerating. This is a battle for independence.”

“We believe France has the potential to play a pivotal role in the global advancement of AI. To achieve European leadership, it is essential to invest proactively in the infrastructure that powers AI services, particularly in data and associated infrastructure,” said Sikander Rashid, Head of Europe, Brookfield.

“Our €20 billion investment program represents a significant step toward this ambition, laying the foundation for France to compete on the global stage. We are excited to collaborate with stakeholders across France and are looking to expand our investment in data centres to an even greater scale in the future,” he added.

Brookfield has over €150bn invested across digital infrastructure, renewable power and semiconductor manufacturing worldwide. Last year, Brookfield and Microsoft announced the largest ever renewable power supply deal for business activities in Europe and North America. In 2022, Brookfield and Intel entered into a $30bn partnership for the development of Intel’s landmark semiconductor foundry in Arizona.