{"text":[[{"start":11.2,"text":"French private equity firm Ardian is funding a new AI data centre and research campus outside Paris in a deal worth up to €5bn, as investment groups rush to back European digital infrastructure projects."}],[{"start":24.85,"text":"Ardian told the FT it would build one of the continent’s biggest AI “gigafactories” alongside its data centre group Verne, with around one-third of the total investment being equity and the remainder funded by debt."}],[{"start":37.6,"text":"Mathias Burghardt, chief executive of Ardian France, told the FT it was a “crucial time for Europe to build its digital backbone for the future” as its “AI compute capacity is significantly lower than its share of the world economy. "}],[{"start":51.95,"text":"“If Europe is to maintain its leadership on a world stage in the years ahead, this gap needs to be urgently closed,” he said. "}],[{"start":60.550000000000004,"text":"The investment underscores Europe’s push to build enough computing infrastructure to compete in the AI race without deepening its dependence on US tech groups, even as governments face growing political scrutiny over the energy demands and economic value of large-scale data centres."}],[{"start":77.7,"text":"The FT reported last week that SoftBank has pledged to invest €75bn in a vast network of AI computing clusters in France, its largest AI investment outside of the US."}],[{"start":90.35000000000001,"text":"The Ardian-backed site, around 20 per cent of which will be a data centre with the rest dedicated to research and industrial units, will have a target capacity of up to 500MW — equivalent to around half of the output of a nuclear power station. The two groups aim to have around 200MW online by 2030."}],[{"start":109.20000000000002,"text":"While this makes it among the biggest such facilities in Europe, the effort is far smaller than those being built in the US and China. "}],[{"start":116.85000000000002,"text":"Google, Meta and Amazon are building AI data centres with capacities exceeding 1GW, while Huawei is backing the construction of several large data centre facilities in China."}],[{"start":128.20000000000002,"text":"Burghardt said that in addition to serving European customers, the new site would also appeal to US hyperscalers who “needed to partner with European players” due to political concerns about digital sovereignty."}],[{"start":141.50000000000003,"text":"“When you are a very big hyperscaler . . . You cannot afford to negotiate with different countries, different sites, you need to have a partner which not only is able to deploy and has the muscle to deploy that, but to make those projects [politically] acceptable,” he said. "}],[{"start":157.25000000000003,"text":"The deal follows last month’s announcement that a French consortium including Ardian is bidding on a €10bn EU project to create a data centre campus in France. Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron announced €109bn of AI investment in France over the coming years, as the country seeks a foothold in the global AI industry."}],[{"start":179.70000000000002,"text":"Ardian argues that the project’s appeal was strengthened by France’s relatively stable electricity prices. France generates close to 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power — the largest such fleet in Europe — helping shield domestic energy prices from the spikes seen elsewhere in Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine."}],[{"start":200.00000000000003,"text":"French officials have long promoted that advantage in an effort to attract industrial investment, although businesses often complain that permitting processes are cumbersome and grid connections can take years to secure."}],[{"start":212.95000000000002,"text":"Burghardt said Ardian was confident the necessary grid connection would be in place by 2030. But he added that the company would separately invest €3bn in renewable energy infrastructure to avoid a backlash over power consumption."}],[{"start":227.4,"text":"“There is growing controversy that data centres are using energy meant for the population and increasing electricity prices,” he said. “For that reason, we will invest in parallel . . . We will invest the same baseload energy capacity that the data centre will use.”"}],[{"start":253.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780312997_8376.mp3"}