The consortium has announced its bid for the European Commission’s “AI Gigafactory” tender and the start of very advanced negotiations to develop its first two European campuses in the Strasbourg region.
Bringing together Europe’s biggest players in energy, construction, cloud, semiconductors, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, ÆTHER’s goal is to demonstrate that Europe has all the skills needed to design, build, power, operate and scale artificial intelligence infrastructures.
The consortium is at a very advanced stage of negotiations for the acquisition of two industrial sites in the Strasbourg area intended to house factories for the production of artificial intelligence computers.
The first FR-SXB1 data center, already equipped with the necessary hardware and administrative approvals, is expected to be operational during 2027, subject to the completion of the final acquisition of the facility by the end of October 2026. And FR-SXB2 should begin operations in a few months, subject to completion of the final acquisition of the facility by the end of December 2026.
When launched gradually, both sites will have an initial total combined electrical capacity of 42 MW. Within 12 months of launch, the target will be approximately 40 MW of additional electrical capacity for both sites combined.
The ultimate goal will be to achieve an electrical capacity of over 400 MW, taking into account the electrical capacity and RTE proposals already being studied and expected by the end of July 2026 for FR-SXB1.
Located in the heart of Europe, in close proximity to European institutions and at the center of the Rhine economic axis, this double campus is designed to become one of the most advanced artificial intelligence infrastructures on the European continent.