AIToday
Japan Times TechPublished: May 12, 2026, 13:00 JST

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son in talks with French President Macron on potential multibillion-dollar AI data center investment

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son in talks with French President Macron on potential multibillion-dollar AI data center investment

3 Key Points

  1. Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, is considering a multibillion-dollar investment in France for an AI data center project, with talks underway about unveiling the plan in the coming weeks.

  2. Son has floated the idea of putting as much as $100 billion into the country, though he may not reach that figure if he prioritizes other projects. The initiative was proposed by President Emmanuel Macron during a recent meeting with Son in Tokyo.

  3. Son was intrigued by the direct approach from a head of state and started reviewing the matter in earnest, as part of SoftBank's broader buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Not sure about something? Ask the AI

Questions and answers are published on this page.

Summaries like this, in your inbox every morning.

Japan Times TechRead Original Article

AI news that matters for your work, delivered every morning.

Pick your industry and the AI tools you use, and get news related to your work every day.

Free · 30 seconds with Google · unsubscribe anytimeWhat is AIToday? →

Ask AI

Ask AI anything about this article. The AI reads this article, earlier AIToday articles, and Wikipedia, and cites its sources. Q&As are published on this page for other readers too.

Questions and answers are published on this page.

Next articleRegexPSPACE benchmark evaluates LLMs and reasoning models on PSPACE-complete regular expression problems