Nebius plans massive AI data centre in northern France

Amsterdam-based AI cloud company Nebius is planning to build a massive 240-megawatt data centre in northern France, a project expected to become one of Europe’s largest AI infrastructure hubs.

The facility will be built in Béthune, near Lille, on the site of a former Bridgestone tyre factory. According to the company, construction will roll out in phases, with initial capacity expected to go online by late summer and around half of the site operational by the end of 2026, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Although Nebius did not disclose financial details, projects of this size typically require investments worth several billion euros.

Nebius has quickly gained recognition in the global AI infrastructure race after securing major deals with U.S. tech giants, including a $17 billion agreement with Microsoft and a $3 billion deal with Meta. The company is often grouped with firms like CoreWeave as part of a new wave of “neocloud” providers focused on supporting high-performance AI workloads.

The project reflects growing demand for large-scale data centres in Europe as companies expand artificial intelligence development and cloud computing capacity.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada