A consortium of European companies, Aether Infrastructure, wants to build two data centers in France as part of the European Commission’s AI Gigafactory scheme.

Aether brings together “leading European players in energy, construction, cloud computing, semiconductors, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence” to “pursue a clear ambition: to demonstrate that Europe possesses all the expertise required to design, build, power, operate, and scale AI infrastructure,” the group said.

The consortium includes hardware firms SiPearl and 2CRSi, as well as real estate company Nhood and Dassault Systems.

According to Aether, it is in “highly advanced negotiations” to acquire two industrial sites in the Strasbourg region of France.

It expects to close a deal for the first site, FR-SXB1, by the end of October, and is targeting a 2027 opening date. The purchase of the second data center location, FR-SXB2, should be complete by the end of the year.

With grid connections and permissions already in place, the two sites will initially provide a combined 42MW of capacity. Aether intends to secure a further 40MW by the end of 2028, with an ultimate goal of scaling the sites to 400MW. It says it has submitted proposals to grid operator RTE to try and secure more power.

Though the locations of the data centers have not been disclosed, both are brownfield industrial sites. Nhood will lead on data center construction, with support from another real estate company, Damthieu Bard, and Equans.

AI hardware will come from server company 2CRSi, AI inference platform Axelera AI, and chip designer SiPearl. Sourcing energy will be the responsibility of power firm ÉS Group, engineering company Projex and Haffner Energy. Aether says these partners will “aim to demonstrate that the growth of artificial intelligence can be successfully aligned with the energy transition.”

Philippe Notton, CEO and founder of SiPearl, said: “By combining SiPearl’s high-performance processors with Axelera AI’s accelerators in 2CRSi’s high-density servers, we will deliver a complete hardware solution capable of handling the most demanding AI workloads – with the added benefit of European sovereignty. We are delighted to play an active role in the Aether consortium, which confirms Europe’s essential position in the global AI race.”

The Aether partners are working with public sector organizations including the Grand Est regional government and the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.

“Artificial intelligence represents a historic opportunity for Europe’s reindustrialization. With Aether, we are demonstrating that our continent already possesses all the expertise required to build its own strategic infrastructure,” said Alain Wilmouth, chairman of 2CRSi and initiator of the consortium.

Aether is a candidate for the €20 billion ($22.8bn) EU gigafactories project. Announced in February 2025, it will see three to five large supercomputing clusters built across the continent, each equipped with 100,000 AI chips for training the latest and most complex models.

Other gigafactory candidates include a French consortium led by Iliad and Dutch company Volt.