en.Wedoany.com Reported - French data center operator Data4 plans to invest €5 billion in building a large-scale artificial intelligence technology park on a former industrial site in Escaudain, Hauts-de-France, northern France. The project, located at Parc des Soufflantes on the former Usinor factory site, will be Data4's largest data center campus in France, covering 33 hectares with a capacity of 700 megawatts, and will house four next-generation data centers. According to Data4, it is expected to create 2,400 stable local jobs once fully operational.
The site selection reflects a trend in the data center market of repurposing former industrial land. Data4 has already transformed former Alcatel and Nokia factory sites in the Paris region into the Par01 and Par03 campuses, with a total capacity of 500 megawatts. The Escaudain project further integrates industrial redevelopment into the AI development landscape. Data4 was selected at the end of 2025 by the Communauté d'Agglomération de La Porte du Hainaut as the exclusive partner for the area's redevelopment, and confirmed the project's feasibility after six months of study. The region hopes to integrate into the "AI Valley," an extension of Paris's digital ecosystem into northern France.
Hauts-de-France is located at the crossroads of four major markets—Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris—making it a natural exchange point for data traffic. The region also offers labor resources and a reliable, decarbonized energy supply capable of supporting rapid data center development. Olivier Micheli, Chairman and CEO of Data4, stated that the project will revitalize land through the digital industry with support from national and local authorities, building sovereign, sustainable, and competitive infrastructure. The next steps over the coming twelve months will involve further studies and preliminary work, followed by a more structural phase.
Of the €5 billion allocated for Escaudain, a significant portion will be used to build four next-generation data centers. Data4 plans to invest over €20 billion by 2030 to expand its campuses across Europe. The project benefits from a fast-track procedure initiated by the French government and grid operator Rte, aimed at accelerating data center installations in line with France's innovation and AI strategy. The project announces sustainable solutions such as using low-carbon cement and recovering waste heat from servers. Utilizing brownfield sites helps reduce land consumption, and the project will restore heavy industrial and steel-intensive areas to host computing, data, and AI facilities. Data4 also plans to create a center of excellence and innovation called "Data4 Pour Tous" within the campus, collaborating with local schools, institutions, and associations on training and research.
Aymeric Robin, President of the Communauté d'Agglomération de La Porte du Hainaut, expressed hope that this AI data center campus project will erase the last traces of the industrial era and open a new chapter in technology, allowing citizens to benefit from job opportunities and technical careers related to healthcare, services, or security. Data4 operates ten campus platforms across six European countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, and Greece. The group states that most European citizens' data is stored overseas, making it necessary to develop campuses on European soil to support digital growth and strategic autonomy. The Escaudain project emerges on land with a deep industrial heritage, reflecting how digital sovereignty involves energy, land, skills, and connectivity.
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