France's nuclear reactors become its AI moat

When Emmanuel Macron, France's president, sat down to dinner with Masayoshi Son in Tokyo in early April, his pitch came down to two things France could supply that most of Europe could not: cheap electricity and a fast yes. Mr Son, the founder and chief executive of SoftBank, the Japanese investment conglomerate, listened. Seven weeks later, on May 30th, his group pledged up to €75bn ($87bn) to build a network of AI computing clusters across France, the largest data-center project Europe has attempted and the biggest AI bet Mr Son has placed outside the United States.

The headline numbers are built to be admired. SoftBank will lead an initial €45bn to construct 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in Hauts-de-France, in the country's north, by 2031, with a further 2GW to follow; a flagship site in Dunkirk pairs the group with Schneider Electric, the French electrical-equipment maker, to serve customers in London, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Completed, the full five-gigawatt complex would pull roughly the peak electricity demand of New York City. The timing is courtier-perfect, arriving days before Mr Macron's Choose France summit, the annual gathering at Versailles where the president collects investment pledges the way other heads of state collect state visits.