A consortium led by private equity firm Ardian has submitted a €10 billion bid to establish an AI Gigafactory near Paris, aiming to bolster European tech sovereignty. The AION consortium includes major French corporations such as Scaleway, Orange, EDF, Capgemini, Bull, and Artefact, with support from Hugging Face, Nokia, and Schneider Electric. The proposed facility would have a capacity of 200 MW, equivalent to over 288,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. This initiative is part of the EU's plan to create several AI supercomputing clusters across Europe, announced in early 2025. France's reliance on nuclear energy, providing low-carbon power, positions it as a strong contender for hosting these facilities. The announcement on May 20, 2026, highlights France's strategic advantage in the EU's AI infrastructure race, with Ardian's involvement underscoring the project's significance for investors.