Several regions also intend to adapt their policies so local companies can benefit. Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France regional council, said he was “negotiating” with project developers so regional businesses and research and educational institutions would have “easier and guaranteed access to computing power.” In its strategy adopted June 25, the Île-de-France region around Paris stated it wants to “ensure that these facilities generate tangible benefits in terms of jobs, economic activity, innovation and energy valorization.”
As for French energy giant EDF, it has made data centers central to its commercial strategy for selling excess electricity, notably by making land available. In its first allocations it favored French players: Of its four calls for expressions of interest, three went to France’s Eclairion, Mistral and OpCore, while the fourth is expected to go to SoftBank.
Take it or leave it
Other French companies are reluctant to exclude American firms because they benefit indirectly from their investments in constructing data centers, even though the sums involved represent a fraction of the total cost of such projects.
“A data center is like an ultra-digitalized factory. It is not a reservoir of jobs in itself, but you have to look at the entire ecosystem around it: construction workers, installers, equipment suppliers, technicians, security personnel,” said Hélène Macela, vice president of Schneider Electric, who maintains it’s better to host data centers in France than see them move abroad.
Her group is planning to build a factory alongside SoftBank’s giant data center to manufacture equipment on a continuous basis.
Business France Deputy CEO Guillaume Basset also takes a pragmatic view, noting that projects supported by his organization are often tied to partnerships with industrial companies.
“It’s a race against the clock: When the train passes, it won’t come by twice,” he concluded, while also noting that foreign companies “generally have an interest in concentrating their investments in a single country.”
Nicolas Camut contributed to this article.
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