Energy company EDF has selected SoftBank and Eclairion to build and run AI data centers on two sites it owns in France.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has been chosen as the preferred bidder to design, build, and run a 400MW data center in Bouchain, Northern France.

Meanwhile, French developer Eclairion said it has been selected to deliver a 330MW data center in Loire-sur-Rhône.

EDF said in March 2025 it would offer sites with a total of 2GW of available power to data center developers. The utility said at the time that this could cut development timelines by “several years.”

SoftBank’s Bouchain power plant plans

The Bouchain site is on land at a power plant outside the city of Valenciennes. The site is home to an operating combined cycle power plant generating 585MW, as well as a shuttered coal plant that generated 250MW before it went offline in 2015.

SoftBank will build a data center on the site under a lease-to-build agreement, EDF said. “The selection process was based on the technical, legal, and financial soundness of the project, as well as its compatibility with the site’s characteristics and associated environmental requirements,” the company said.

“EDF also paid particular attention to the project’s ability to be sustainably integrated into its local environment.”

A due diligence period will now begin, with SoftBank undertaking the technical, environmental, and administrative studies necessary for the project to proceed. A preliminary building lease agreement will be signed between the two parties during this phase, which will be finalized once the studies are complete.

Bernard Fontana, CEO of EDF, said: “The project selected for the Bouchain site illustrates France’s capacity to host large-scale digital infrastructures thanks to competitive, sovereign, and low-carbon electricity.

“It reflects EDF’s commitment to selecting projects that combine industrial excellence, environmental standards, and value creation for local communities, while giving a new purpose to its former industrial sites.”

SoftBank revealed it was working with EDF on the Bouchain site last weekend. The company hopes to develop up to 5GW of data center capacity in France, across multiple sites, at a cost of $75bn.

Eclairion heads east

Meanwhile, Eclairion is set to build at the site of the former Loire-sur-Rhône power station at Givors Cedex, in south-eastern France, to the east of the city of Lyon.

The coal power station was fired up in 1968 and decommissioned in 2005, with a capacity of 250MW.

If the Eclairion project goes ahead, the new data center will offer 350MW IT capacity. The firm first needs to undertake similar studies to SoftBank to assess whether the project is feasible.

Eclairion CEO Arnaud Lepinois described the news as a “major step” for his company, and said EDF’s selection of Eclairion reflected the quality of his firm’s business model and the skills within its team.

Founded in 2024 and owned by High Performance Capital (HPC Group), Eclairion is developing a data center site outside Paris that will host infrastructure for AI lab Mistral. DCD visited the site in April 2025 as part of an in-depth feature on the French AI data center market.

Eclairion is also working on other sites around France, including one in a former paper mill in the Sarthe department.