LATEST: 28 French companies, including Iliad and EDF, join forces for the call for projects for European “gigafactories”
International Report:
The following report highlights an important international development currently attracting worldwide attention.
From left to right: Jérôme Berger, Stratege director of Orange, Vincent Luciani president of Artefact, Emmanuel Le Roux, general director of Bull, Benoît Gaillochet European director of Ardian, Albane Bruyas, head of operations of Scaleway, Thomas Reynaud, boss of Iliad, and Damien Lucas, of Scaleway after a joint press conference announcing the AION AI consortium, in Paris, on May 20 2026. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP “All companies will use artificial intelligence [IA]the question is: where is it made? », summarized Damien Lucas, the general director of Scaleway, Wednesday May 20, during the presentation of the list of 28 French companies gathered around a data center network project dedicated to AI. Called “AION”, this consortium was formed to respond to the future call for tenders from the European Commission with a view to creating such centers, called “gigafactories”. “There won’t be 27 [dans chaque pays membre]there has to be one in France,” explained the director of the cloud company, a subsidiary of the Iliad telecoms group (founded by Xavier Niel, individual shareholder of Le Monde). The project could generate an investment of around 10 billion euros (including around four for Iliad) and offer electrical power of 100 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, ultimately. The associated companies in this “French team” want to reflect the entire AI value chain: telecoms with Iliad or Orange, electricity with EDF, consulting companies with Artefact or CapGemini, supercomputer suppliers with Bull, investment funds with Ardian or Crédit agricole, AI start-ups with Hugging Face, Kyutai or LighOn… You have 66.09% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Global Impact:
Analysts believe this development may influence future diplomatic, political, or economic discussions internationally.
Observers believe further developments could significantly shape the direction of this story in the near future.
Stay tuned for further updates on this developing international story.
Source: This article was originally published by International : Toute l’actualité sur Le Monde.fr. and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
Read the original article here.