Transcription
He said, "Sugar. Then, uh, he has asked me, uh, Masa, uh, can you do, uh, something in France? Choose France. Okay? For your expansion of, uh, business and technology, especially AI data center, uh, can use, uh, our power in France?"
I said, "Okay, if you have power, we can make an AI data center."
And, uh, he asked me, "Masa, are you quick?"
I said, "I am quick." Because he asked me, uh, because there's an event in, uh, June 1st, uh, Choose France event. It's only 2 months. Uh, so, can you, uh, make it happen? Can we announce something on, uh, June 1st?"
I said, "Okay, I will try." And I will, uh, he's, he asked me, "How much can you do?"
I said, "I can try for 2 gigawatts. But I need your support."
Uh, so, he said, "Yeah, okay. Uh, let's do it together. Your team, our team, work together to find the location, to find all the conditions, and then we make it happen." And then we exchange the text and say, "Maybe I can go for a challenge for 5 gigawatts."
In 2 months, we actually identified, committed, and made a specific site already secured for 3 gigawatts. And then we are now evaluating an additional 3 gigawatts. So we are going to commit to deliver 5 gigawatts, which is the largest scale in Europe, which is 75 billion euros in the size of investment for the AI data center. But if you include the chip and system, it's going to be close to 750 billion dollars. In the size of US dollars, I have to convert into euros. But it's a massive size of investment coming.
SoftBank does not put all of the money. We are aggregating. We do the project financing because we have hyperscalers as our customer. So even though the size of the investment is big, it's a growing industry with lots of demand, so that this scale can be achieved. We are doing that in the US already. We are expanding a lot in the US. So, we have the model, we have the momentum, which we can make, uh, France the center of Europe. And Europe needs, uh, this kind of AI technology.
I get amazed every time I come to Europe. The last thousands of years of civilization, uh, centered in Europe, I think so. People discuss whether AI is good, robotics by AI is good or bad for humanity. I said, "Every time civilization comes, the society, lifestyle change, the job change. But if you avoid the speed and the wave of civilization, your country would be left out. There's no choice. US is going fast, China is going fast. Europe, Japan, Asia have to also go fast not to be left out. This is national security."
France has been exporting electricity power. Now, not just exporting, continue to export electricity power, we can make convert electricity as a raw material into more high-valued intelligence. So, France can export intelligence. Not just a power export, export intelligence, which is made by power. Initiated by power. More value-added export. AI utilizing robots, AI robots. France can be. We discussed in the morning. Uh, President Macron has a passion with AI robots. I said, "Okay, maybe we can make France the center of AI robots exporting, manufacturing, creating a factory here in France." This is all for the civilization of the next thousand years. France, Europe have to have a momentum, a powerful engine for the growth of the next civilization. Thank you very much.
>> [applause]
>> Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. I I I really appreciate it. And let me say a few words in English before shifting to French. Uh, we are, we are extremely happy as you perfectly, uh, uh, made it right now. We, we met beginning of April 1st, uh, in Japan during my state visit. And we had this, this first discussion. And, uh, we, we clearly wanted to to make progress with you and deliver concrete results. And you were extremely, as always, direct, ambitious, aggressive in the, in the right sense of the word. And, uh, and, uh, like a challenge, I just asked myself, "Okay, how fast are you? Are you sure that you can deliver for 1st of June?"
"We will do whatever we can." And, uh, and we did it. And I want to thank you personally, uh, your team, and our teams because you, you worked very closely together and, uh, and it's a wonderful achievement. So, indeed, we already secured between Dunkirk, Bosket, and Dushant three different sites. And, and we have a clearly the equivalent already secured of 3 gigawatts, which makes roughly speaking 45 billion already secured in terms of investment. And you want to go to five, and we identified obviously the additional sites, which will make the 75 billion you, you mentioned and you expressed. And on top. So, for us, it's a great achievement. Because you are a very respected partner, very well known, and we transform available energy in data centers, in computing capacities for everybody in the world, but we are clearly bridging the gap we had in computing capacities in Europe. And today, this morning at the Elysée, we signed this partnership with Schneider, which will allow us collectively to even add more value to this project by this common factory in Dunkirk, where on on AI robotics and AI capacities, you will create together more added value. So, it's, it's for us a great achievement. And on top of that, we discussed this morning with Masa together and our teams how to precisely make additional data centers in France, and we identified all the potential sites, and as well how to create more more value together. Meaning how to be more present on AI robotics, where Masa is a great player, and, and we have our roadmap. And we want to double down. So, it's a great achievement. So, I want to thank thank you personally for your commitment and for this great announcement this morning. Now, allow me to shift to French, and you have a translator.
>> We renamed our project.
>> Melango.
>> Melango.
>> It's going to make me so happy. So welcome. This time. Uh, the period is attractive to Europe. Yeah. Collective. Uh, sure. I want to miss you, my lady. Uh, the ministers. Business France. Sure. Uh, the last edition of Choose France. We have, uh, mobilized 87 billion euros of foreign investment. Sure. Confirmed. Delivered. With the [snorts] creation of more than 50,000 jobs. And that's in all our territories with many cities. Less than 30,000 inhabitants. Investments have been deployed. I was there a few days ago. Uh, precisely. Near Châteaudun. For, uh, one of the sites of Vorwerk. Which is a perfect illustration of, uh, the intensity of these investments. Today in Versailles, we will join these places in a few moments. 71 new investments are being announced. And this edition of Choose France alone will allow us to crystallize a record amount of confirmed record 93 billion euro. Bien sûr et l'annonce represent avec les 45 milliards confirmés n'avons pas pris tous ceux qui sont à venir et donc il y a en plus de ces 45 vous l'avez compris le reste pour arriver dans les années à venir à la somme de 75 mais donc au-delà des 45 milliards de SoftBank il y a en effet d'autres projets d'intelligence artificielle de data center mais aussi des projets stratégiques pour notre indépendance dans les semi-conducteurs dans les minerais critiques dans l'électrification des tracteurs ou des camions dans l'acier dans la santé. Ces 93 milliards d'euros d'investissement étranger dans notre pays sont la preuve concrète de l'attractivité de la France pour la 7e année consécutive première destination des investissements étrangers en Europe et elle consacre ses années d'efforts que nous accompagnons aussi avec une accélération de notre agenda européen une simplification de celui-ci compris dans les domaines d'innovation et une accélération des grands projets français avec ce qu'on a appelé la méthode Notre-Dame et les investissements d'avenir pour 2030. L'annonce faite par SoftBank aujourd'hui est donc massive elle est elle aussi historique ce sont 45 milliards d'euros d'investissement en France confirmés que nous avons bâti en 2 mois grâce à l'énergie disponible et tout le travail qui a été fait avec la filière nucléaire française qui nous permet d'ex d'exporter depuis 2 ans plus de 90 terawatt-heure et grâce aussi à toute la mobilisation la préparation des sites avec les collectivités territoriales avec RTE pour que ces sites tout de suite branchés dans les meilleurs délais. Et donc les sites du Bosquel de Dunkerque, du Bouchain sont ainsi prévus pour accueillir les investissements de SoftBank. Ils sont confirmés et donc pour ces pour ces sites et comme je le disais tout à l'heure en introduction en français, c'est 3 GW c'est du sûr et du ferme comme pour le co-investissement avec Schneider sur sur Dunkerque. Ceci nous permet d'avoir ces 45 milliards d'euros d'investissement et ceci va nous permettre de déployer donc les travaux dans les tout prochains mois puisque nous avons un objectif de finaliser tout cela entre fin 2029 mi-2030 pour ces sites et donc pour qu'il y ait une production qui est d'ici la fin de l'année 2030 puisse être pleinement effective. C'est donc une montée en valeur ajoutée pour le pays. Au-delà de ces 45 milliards d'euros, d'autres sites ont été identifiés pour permettre les 75 milliards d'euros d'investissement de SoftBank qui sont souhaités en France sur des data centers et nous avons identifié aussi de nouveaux projets pour produire des robots dans notre pays et continuer l'innovation mais là-dessus fidèle à la méthode que nous avons eue durant ces derniers mois, je n'en dirai pas davantage. Nous avons conçu les choses avec beaucoup d'ambition et avec la volonté d'aller vite mais on annonce quand c'est sûr et c'est ce qu'on a fait aujourd'hui. En tout cas, cette une journée très importante pour la France, pour ce partenariat avec SoftBank puisque à la fois les data centers et le partenariat avec Schneider vont nous permettre vraiment d'avancer beaucoup plus fort, de faire de la France votre premier pays d'investissement, de faire de la France de très loin le premier pays accueillant des centres de données, des des data centers et des des capacités de calcul en Europe et de faire de la.
>> And let me finish by saying this personal word to Mazars. Thank you very much for your commitment, your ambition, and, uh, the fact that you delivered in such a few weeks' time means a lot to us in terms of trust and capacity of execution, so you can count on us in order to follow up and do very big things together. Thank you, Mazars.
>> Thank you. Thank you so much.
>> [applause]
>> Thank you so much.
>> [applause]
>> Thank you.
>> Mhm.