French AI consortium aims for billions from European data center fund

AION, a French consortium with Capgemini, Orange, Scaleway, Ardian and EDF, plans to seek EU funding for a major AI data center project.

The buildout in France could cost around €10 billion and reach up to 1 gigawatt of capacity.

It would tap the European Commission’s new €20 billion AI infrastructure fund.

If completed, the project could become one of Europe’s largest AI bets and cut dependence on U.S. and Chinese cloud systems.