Europe · country profile
Data centres and AI in France, ranked against Europe and the US
France ranks 3rd of 26 European countries for cheapest big-user power (€0.072/kWh, H1 2026); its weakest is 18th of 29 for highest share of people using generative AI (37.5%, 2025). Data centres use about 1% of its electricity (SDES, 2024). It hosts 1 EU AI Factory. Sources: Eurostat, Ember, EuroHPC, TOP500, Epoch AI; data as of 2026-10-12.
Updated 12 October 2026 · data build 2026-10-10 · how we know · corrections
Where France ranks among 31 European countries
Rank 1 = best on the measure's own terms (cheapest, lowest carbon, highest share, most). Each rank is among the European countries with a figure, so the "of" number differs. France is an EU member. Measured
Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_205 · Ember European wholesale prices (via StackPath eu_power_prices) · Ember yearly electricity data (CC BY 4.0) · SDES, French ministry statistics service · Eurostat isoc_eb_ai · Eurostat isoc_ai_iaiu · TOP500, June 2026 list (via eu_compute) · Epoch AI GPU clusters (CC BY 4.0, via global_context) · EuroHPC JU (via eu_ai_factories) · Eurostat Comext DS-045409 · EU EED data-centre dashboard (via eu_dc_capacity) · RTE (TSO) · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
France against the EU-27 average and the US
Same measure, same source family, nearest year. A dash means no comparable figure, not zero. Measured
| Measure | France | EU-27 | US | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big-user electricity price | €0.072/kWh H1 202634% below EU | €0.110/kWh H2 2025 | €0.076/kWh 2025 | €0.165/kWh H1 2026 |
| Grid carbon intensity | 41 g/kWh 202581% below EU | 211 g/kWh 2025 | 384 g/kWh 2025 | 263 g/kWh 2025 |
| Clean power share | 94.9% 2025+23.9 pts vs EU | 71% 2025 | 43% 2025 | 47.7% 2025 |
| Data centres' share of electricity | 1% 2024−2 pts vs EU | 3% 2024 | 4.4% 2023 | 23.2% 2025 |
| Businesses using AI | 18.2% 2025−1.7 pts vs EU | 19.9% 2025 | – | 19.6% 2025 |
| People using generative AI | 37.5% 2025+4.8 pts vs EU | 32.7% 2025 | – | 44.9% 2025 |
| Electricity use per person | 7 MWh 20251.1× EU | 6.2 MWh 2025 | 13.3 MWh 2025 | 6.8 MWh 2025 |
| Supercomputing per million people | 4.6 PF 2026/0655% below EU | 10.2 PF 2026/06 | 20.6 PF 2026/06 | 1.2 PF 2026/06 |
| GPU compute per million people | 268 H100e 2025-071.5× EU | 177 H100e 2025-07 | 3,660 H100e 2025-07 | – |
Source: Eurostat nrg_pc_205, isoc_eb_ai, isoc_ai_iaiu · Ember · EIA via eu_power_prices · LBNL via US DOE (US data-centre share) · Ember Grids for data centres (Europe share) · TOP500 · Epoch AI GPU clusters · World Bank population · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
Our reading. Per person, France has 7.3% of the US level of GPU-cluster compute in Epoch AI's database and 22% of the US level of TOP500 supercomputing power. Epoch's database covers only part of the world's AI compute, and private clusters are under-recorded everywhere. Estimate
Power: 95% clean generation, €0.072/kWh for the largest users
Generation mix in 2025 (Ember); big-user prices exclude VAT (Eurostat band IG, 150 GWh a year or more). Measured
Share of generation by source, 2025. Darker bars are fossil. Demand 480.6 TWh; generation 574.4 TWh; net exports 93.8 TWh. Carbon intensity 41 gCO2e/kWh (EU-27: 211; US: 384).
Big-user electricity price, € per kWh excluding VAT, by half-year (band IG). The EU-27 average is published later than country figures.
Wholesale power averaged €77/MWh over 2025-10 to 2026-09 (5th cheapest of 27). Taxes and levies (excluding VAT) were 1% of the big-user price in Eurostat's latest year-end comparison.
Source: Ember yearly electricity data (CC BY 4.0) · Eurostat nrg_pc_205 · Ember wholesale prices via eu_power_prices · Compiled by StackPath
Data centres: about 1% of France's electricity
Electricity share, capacity reported under the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED, the EU's data-centre reporting law), grid requests, restrictions and energy rules. Reported
- Share of electricity: 1% in 2024 (share of national electricity consumption; metered consumption of the 471 sites using over 1 GWh a year (4.3 TWh); SDES puts all sites at 4.3-6 TWh, 1-1.5%; SDES, French ministry statistics service). Europe as a whole: about 3% (2024, Ember estimate); the US: 4.4% (2023, LBNL estimate).
- Reported to the EU (EED): 631 MW of IT capacity at 152 sites for 2024, of an estimated 264 sites that should report; average PUE (power usage effectiveness: total power ÷ IT power) 1.49. Coverage is partial, so this is a floor.
- Forecast 2030: 15–20 TWh (about 3% of demand), RTE Forecast
- Forecast 2035: 23–28 TWh (about 4% of demand), RTE Forecast
- Grid requests: 18.0 GW reserved (data centres; RTE (TSO)) (as at 2026-05; source).
| Operator | Stage | MW | As at |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTE (TSO) | reserved | – | 2026-05 |
| RTE (via trade press) | requested | 28,600 | – |
Grid-queue figures as published; stages (requested, reserved, contracted) are not comparable across operators.
Restrictions and connection rules (2)
- Marseille collective against port and Saint-André data centres (opposition, ongoing), from 2023
- About fifteen local oppositions to data-centre projects (opposition, ongoing), from 2025-12
National energy rules for data centres: reporting and incentives only
- Reduced electricity excise for data centres, subject to eco-conditions (tax condition; in force, 2019)
On top of national rules, 7 EU-level rules apply to data centres in every member state (EED reporting, the rating scheme and heat-reuse rules).
Source: SDES, French ministry statistics service · EU EED data-centre dashboard · RTE (TSO) · Compiled by StackPath
Cloud and capital: €5.2bn pledged by hyperscalers, €0bn with visible building
Hyperscaler pledges (a pledge is not a building), sovereign-cloud offers by jurisdiction, and neocloud (GPU cloud) sites. Reported
| Company | Pledge | Announced | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon (AWS) | more than €1.2bn (Amazon France total) | 2024-05-13 | unknown |
| Microsoft | €4bn | 2024-05-13 | unknown |
2 current pledges worth €5.2bn; €0bn of it is stalled (paused, delayed or cancelled). Horizons and currencies differ.
Sovereign-cloud offers under France's jurisdiction (10)
- Bleu: Cloud de Confiance (National Partner Cloud, France) · European provider · partly live
- S3NS PREMI3NS (Trusted Cloud by S3NS) · European provider · live
- Cegedim CegNumCloud Secured IaaS · European provider · live
- Cloud Temple Secure Temple (IaaS) and PaaS OpenShift · European provider · live
- NumSpot cloud services platform · European provider · live
- 3DS OUTSCALE IaaS Cloud on Demand · European provider · live
- OVHcloud SecNumCloud offers (Hosted Private Cloud VMware, Bare Metal Pod, SNC Cloud Platform) · European provider · live
- Orange Business Cloud Avenue SecNum · European provider · live
- Scaleway (incl. Scaleway SecNumCloud) · European provider · live
- Worldline Cloud Services: Secured IaaS · European provider · live
Neocloud sites in France
| Company | Site | MW | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nebius | near Lille | 240 (under construction) | building (site town not named by Nebius) |
| Nebius | Paris (colocation) | – | First colocation, agreement Jul 2024 |
| Nebius | France, two new colocation sites (unnamed) | – | Land and capacity secured Feb 2026 |
| Fluidstack | Bosquel, Somme (1 GW AI campus) | 1,000 (cancelled) | dropped Mar 2026; site now a SoftBank–Sesterce JV |
| Mistral Compute (Mistral AI) | Bruyères-le-Châtel (Eclairion site) | 44 (under construction) | Q2 2026 target passed; go-live not confirmed |
| Sesterce | Bosquel, Somme (SoftBank JV) | 1,000 (planned) | JV with SoftBank Group announced 1 Jun 2026 |
| Sesterce | Rovaltain (Valence area) | 40 (planned) | Confirmed 40 MW cap |
| Evroc | Mougins, near Cannes | 96 (planned) | 2025 target passed; no go-live found |
Neoclouds headquartered here: Mistral Compute (Mistral AI), Sesterce, Scaleway (Iliad), OVHcloud (GPU/AI part).
Source: StackPath eu_pledges (company announcements) · StackPath sovereign_cloud · StackPath eu_neoclouds (filings, company releases) · Compiled by StackPath
Compute: 1 EU AI Factory, 317.1 PF on the TOP500
Public AI Factories (EuroHPC), gigafactory bids, the TOP500 supercomputer list and Epoch AI's database of GPU clusters (in H100-equivalents: compute expressed as a number of Nvidia H100 chips). Measured
- EuroHPC role: AI Factory host.
- TOP500 (2026/06): 21 systems, 317.1 PF combined (1.69% of the list); the largest is CEA-HE at Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), ranked 29th in the world.
- GPU clusters (Epoch AI): 18,403 H100e, 1.17% of the world total in Epoch's database (clusters operational by 2025-07). The US holds 1,251,044 H100e in the same data. Estimate
| AI Factory | City | GPUs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI2F (AI Factory France) | Bruyeres-le-Chatel (CEA TGCC) | not stated | contracted |
AI gigafactory bids based here
- AION (Scaleway (iliad Group), Ardian, Artefact, Bull, Capgemini, EDF, Orange), 200 MW reported; bid announced
- AETHER (2CRSi, Dassault Systemes (OUTSCALE), SiPearl, Axelera AI, Viridien, Electricite de Strasbourg, Equans), 42 MW reported; bid announced
The EU gigafactory tender closes 3 Dec 2026; bidders are not published, so this lists public announcements only.
Large AI clusters announced or built
| Cluster | MW | GPUs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nebius AI factory near Lille | 240 | – | under construction |
| Mistral Compute, Bruyères-le-Châtel | 44 | 13,800 | under construction |
| Campus AI Fouju (MGX-Bpifrance-Mistral-Nvidia) | 1,400 | – | under construction |
| Fluidstack France 1 GW AI supercomputer | 1,000 | – | cancelled |
| Brookfield Cambrai AI campus | 1,000 | – | announced |
| evroc Mougins | 96 | 50,000 | announced |
| Cerebras Europe expansion | 200 | – | announced |
| Alice Recoque | 24 | – | under construction |
Source: EuroHPC JU via eu_ai_factories · TOP500 June 2026 · Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0) · StackPath eu_compute (announced clusters) · Compiled by StackPath
Chips: €2,900m of Chips Act aid approved for 1 project
Fabs and pilot lines under the EU Chips Act (aid approved is not production), and AI-chip startups headquartered here. Reported
| Project | Company | Aid €m | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crolles 300mm FD-SOI fab | STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries | 2,900 | paused |
| FAMES pilot line | CEA-Leti (Chips JU) | – | operating |
AI-chip startups
| Company | City | Funding $m | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiPearl | Maisons-Laffitte | 140 | sampling |
| VSORA | Paris | 50 | taped out |
| Arago | Paris | 26 | pre-silicon |
Source: StackPath eu_chips (Commission decisions, company releases) · StackPath eu_ai_chip_startups · Compiled by StackPath
AI use: 38% of people used generative AI in 2025 (EU: 33%)
Eurostat's surveys of businesses (10+ employees, any AI technology) and of people aged 16–74 (generative AI tools in the last three months), plus AI labs headquartered here. Measured
Share of businesses with 10 or more employees using at least one AI technology (Eurostat isoc_eb_ai; survey years only). France: 18.2% in 2025, 16th of 28.
Share of people aged 16–74 who used generative AI tools in the three months before the 2025 survey. There is no comparable official US series.
AI labs headquartered in France
| Lab | Type | Funding $bn | Valuation $bn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral AI | European lab | 6.49 | 24 |
| H Company | European lab | 0.22 | – |
| Meta FAIR Paris | US-owned lab in Europe | – | – |
Equity funding as tracked by Epoch AI and company releases; US-owned labs in Europe are listed but are not European capital.
Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ai · Eurostat isoc_ai_iaiu · StackPath eu_ai_labs (Epoch AI, company releases) · Compiled by StackPath
Servers: 5.4% of the EU's server imports from outside the EU land in France
Customs flows (Eurostat Comext), not machines installed: ports of entry such as the Netherlands count goods that move on. Measured
- Servers (HS 847150) from outside the EU, 2025-08 to 2026-07: €1.6bn, 4th of 27 member states.
- All compute kit (servers, parts, network gear, chips) from outside the EU, last 12 months: €5.83bn (5.6% of the EU total, rank 6); servers up 367% on the previous 12 months.
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409 · StackPath eu_hardware_imports · Compiled by StackPath
Deeper pages and other countries
Each layer has its own page with the full European table.
- The country scorecard (18 largest markets)
- Electricity prices for data centres
- Data-centre capacity and electricity use
- Data-centre grid queues
- Restrictions and moratoriums
- Data-centre energy rules
- Hyperscaler pledges vs builds
- Sovereign cloud
- Neoclouds
- EU AI Factories and gigafactories
- AI compute in Europe
- Chips Act fabs
- AI chip startups
- European AI labs
- Server imports
- The global AI compute race
All 31 country profiles
Our reading. Against Ireland, France pays 56% less for big-user power and runs a cleaner grid (41 vs 263 gCO2e/kWh). Where data centres and AI compute go also depends on grid access, land, fibre, tax and customers, which these measures do not capture. Our reading
Questions people ask
- How much do large electricity users pay in France?
- Eurostat's average for users of 150 GWh or more a year in France was €0.072/kWh in H1 2026, excluding VAT: 3rd cheapest of 26 European countries with a figure. The EU-27 average was €0.110 (H2 2025); US industrial users paid about €0.076 in 2025 (EIA, all industrial users).
- How much electricity do data centres use in France?
- About 1% in 2024 (SDES, French ministry statistics service). Europe as a whole: about 3% (Ember, 2024); the US: 4.4% (LBNL, 2023).
- Does France host an EU AI Factory?
- Yes: AI2F (AI Factory France) (EuroHPC JU selections, Dec 2024 to Oct 2025).
- How many people and businesses in France use AI?
- 37.5% of people aged 16–74 used generative AI tools in the three months before the 2025 survey (EU-27: 32.7%). 18.2% of businesses with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025 (EU-27: 19.9%). Source: Eurostat.
- How does France compare with Ireland?
- Big-user power: €0.072 vs Ireland's €0.165/kWh; grid carbon: 41 vs 263 gCO2e/kWh; data centres' share of electricity: 1% vs 23.2%; people using generative AI: 37.5% vs 44.9%.