Data4 to invest €5 billion in AI data center campus in northern France

Data4 announced a €5 billion investment to convert the former Usinor brownfield site Parc des Soufflantes in Escaudain, Hauts‑de‑France, into a new AI‑focused data‑center campus. The project will provide 700 MW of capacity across 33 hectares and will eventually host four next‑generation data centres.

When completed the campus is expected to create about 2,400 permanent jobs in the region. It forms part of Data4’s broader plan to spend more than €20 billion on European data‑centre campuses by 2030, supporting growing AI workloads, cloud services and industrial data applications while strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty. The development will use low‑emission concrete and waste‑heat recovery to limit its environmental impact, and benefits from the Hauts‑de‑France area’s strategic connectivity to major European data‑traffic nodes.