Softbank's Son and French President Macron Announce 45 Billion-Euro AI Investment in France | Dawn
About Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son announced a major artificial intelligence investment plan in France alongside President Emmanuel Macron on June 1, 2026. Son said that during a meeting in April, Macron asked him to invest in France and challenged him to deliver an announcement within two months for the "Choose France" event. Son stated that SoftBank committed to deliver 5 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in France, which he described as the largest such scale in Europe, representing an investment of 75 billion euros for the data centers and up to 750 billion dollars when including chips and systems. He said that sites for 3 gigawatts had already been secured in Dunkirk, Bosquet, and Bouchain, with additional sites under evaluation. Son characterized the rapid development as a matter of national security, stating that the United States and China are moving quickly and that Europe, Japan, and Asia must also accelerate to avoid being left behind. Son also discussed his views on artificial intelligence in other recent appearances. He said he uses ChatGPT for two to three hours daily and described it as having already surpassed artificial general intelligence (AGI) on many subjects. He predicted that artificial super-intelligence (ASI), which he described as 10,000 times smarter than humans, would arrive within two years, revising his earlier estimate of ten years. Son stated that AI models are now designing subsequent models without human engineers, and he positioned SoftBank as aiming to provide the chips, data centers, and robotics that he considers fundamental to the future of ASI.