Cooling towers on the Dampierre-en-Burly nuclear energy plant, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF), in Dampierre-en-Burly, France, on Tuesday, Might 3, 2022. EDF’s falling nuclear manufacturing, mixed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is exacerbating Europe’s vitality disaster as France is historically a internet exporter of electrical energy.
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SoftBank’s plan to take a position 75 billion euros in constructing AI infrastructure in France underscored the nation’s standing as a number one hub, however Massive Tech’s lofty vitality calls for will put the broader continent’s grid to the check, analysts say.
Japan’s SoftBank on Saturday introduced plans to construct 3.1 GW of AI knowledge facilities within the northern Hauts-de-France area, together with new websites in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain, by 2031.
With over 60% of its energy wants met by nuclear energy, France is especially well-placed to handle such an energy-intensive undertaking at a time when Europe is grappling with a few of the highest industrial electrical energy costs amongst main economies.
It is a key benefit as power-hungry knowledge facilities make investments significantly delicate to vitality prices, pushing firms towards components of Europe with decrease energy prices, consultants beforehand instructed CNBC.
Costs for energy-intensive industries in Europe final yr had been on common roughly double these within the U.S. and 50% increased than in China and India, in accordance with the Worldwide Power Company.
Analysts instructed CNBC in Might that they see a powerful argument for rising the prominence of nuclear energy as a key part of European nations’ vitality technique to assist handle the calls for of knowledge facilities.
As of 2025, nuclear comprised simply 11.8% of Europe’s complete vitality combine, whereas oil and fuel nonetheless accounted for over a 3rd, in accordance with Eurostat knowledge.
Information middle operators look to the subsequent decade of energy
Small modular reactors, or SMRs, have caught the attention of Massive Tech corporations in the US. In 2024, Amazon introduced an settlement with Dominion Power, Virginia’s utility firm, to discover SMR growth. In 2025, Google adopted go well with, getting into into an settlement with Kairos Energy and the TVA for a brand new nuclear plant.
These factory-built nuclear energy crops are a lot smaller than conventional reactors, sometimes able to 300 megawatts or much less.
SMRs are normally designed to be mass-produced and shipped to websites for quicker and cheaper set up than conventional reactors, which regularly take over a decade to come back on-line. They don’t require grid connection to work, both, which provides one other key profit to knowledge middle suppliers.
Rolling SMRs out en masse, nonetheless, can be a problem, in accordance with the vitality workforce at regulation agency Baker McKenzie.
Information middle operators are their energy necessities over the subsequent 10 years as a result of “in the end that’s the driving drive behind whether or not they can function or not,” Tania Arora, companion at Baker McKenzie’s vitality group, instructed CNBC in an interview.
“A lot of them are nuclear SMRs, however it’s a problem. No knowledge middle operator, in my opinion, will take first-of-a-kind threat on SMRs, and there are none presently operational for the time being exterior China and Russia.”
Power availability is not the one driver behind Massive Tech’s funding in Europe. London’s expertise pool is one other.
A number of U.S. AI firms which have just lately introduced large progress plans for London footprints. This consists of Nvidia-backed Runway, which instructed CNBC on Monday that it plans to make London its new European headquarters.
Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have additionally introduced plans to open new workplace areas in London.
