Hauts-de-France has become the center of France's plans for giant AI data centers. On May 30, 2026, SoftBank announced a first phase of up to €45 billion for 3.1 gigawatts of data centers in the region by 2031, at the port of Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), at Bouchain on a former EDF power station site, and at Bosquel in the Somme. Data4 confirmed in June a €5 billion, 700-megawatt campus on the former Usinor steelworks at Escaudain, near Valenciennes, and plans a 1-gigawatt campus on the former Cambrai-Épinoy air base.
Bosquel, a village of about 300 people, would sit beside a 46-hectare campus of up to 1 gigawatt that SoftBank will build with the French startup Sesterce. "46 hectares, that's the size of the built-up part of the village," said Camille Ego, president of the association that saw off a truck warehouse on the same fields two years ago. "We feel our village will be sacrificed in the name of digital sovereignty." The prefecture expects up to a year of impact studies and public consultation, then two years before the first phase runs.
At Escaudain, Data4 says further studies and early works will take about a year; it has not given a construction timetable. "We aim to erase the last remnants of an industrial era," said Aymeric Robin, president of the Porte du Hainaut urban community, which picked Data4 for the site.
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
Hauts-de-France3
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brookfield/Data4 Cambrai (E-Valley) | Data4 | Proposed | 1,000 MW | |
| Brookfield/Data4 EscaudainExact site not confirmed | Brookfield/Data4 | Proposed | 700 MW | |
| Fluidstack BosquelExact site not confirmed | Fluidstack | Cancelled | Not reported |
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