ÆTHER Unveils European AI Gigafactory Plan for Strasbourg
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Off the Wire Press Releases MAISONS-LAFFITTE, France, July 8, 2026 – The European consortium ÆTHER today unveiled the composition of its founding members and announced its application for the European Commission’s forthcoming AI Gigafactory call for proposals, to be launched as part of the EU’s digital and industrial sovereignty strategy. Bringing together leading European players in energy, construction, cloud computing, semiconductors, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence, ÆTHER pursues a clear ambition: to demonstrate that Europe possesses all the expertise required to design, build, power, operate, and scale AI infrastructure. Two Sites for a European AI Gigafactory Project AETHER Infrastructures, the project company behind the initiative, announced that it has entered into highly advanced negotiations to acquire two industrial sites in the Strasbourg region, which are intended to host AI computing facilities. Already equipped with the required infrastructure and administrative approvals, the first data center, FR-SXB1, is expected to begin operations during 2027, subject to the completion of the site’s acquisition by the end of October 2026. FR-SXB2 is expected to follow a few months later, subject to the completion of its acquisition by the end of December 2026. With a phased deployment, the two sites will initially provide a combined electrical capacity of 42 MW. Within 12 months of commissioning, the objective is to secure an additional 40 MW of electrical capacity across both sites. The long-term ambition is to reach a total electrical capacity of more than 400 MW, subject to grid availability and the proposals of RTE, France’s electricity transmission system operator, which are currently under review and are expected by the end of July 2026 for FR-SXB1. Located in the heart of Europe, in close proximity to the European institutions and at the center of the Rhine economic corridor, this dual-campus project is intended to become one of the most advanced artificial intelligence infrastructures on the European continent. More than an AI Gigafactory, ÆTHER aims to develop a European industrial model that integrates high-performance computing, sovereign cloud services, energy recovery, scientific research, industrial innovation, and regional development. The Project Is Built Around Five Core Commitments The first commitment is to ensure a net zero land take policy through the use of existing industrial sites. Nhood is an international real estate solutions operator committed to urban regeneration. It supports property owners, public authorities, and investors in the sustainable transformation of their assets and communities through an integrated services platform that develops mixed-use, value-creating projects rooted in local development dynamics. Founded in 1861. Demathieu Bard is a leading independent construction and real estate group operating in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and North America. Equans is a global leader in the energy and services sector, with expertise in the design, installation, maintenance, and operation of multi-technical facilities, including electrical and thermal engineering systems and digital solutions, will build and maintain campuses capable of restoring a productive purpose to existing sites while limiting the environmental impact of these new digital infrastructures. The second commitment focuses on the reindustrialization of Europe’s high-performance computing value chain. 2CRSi is a European manufacturer of high-performance servers and an Elite Partner of NVIDIA and AMD. Axelera AI is a global leader in AI inference platforms, with its headquarters and engineering operations based in Europe. SiPearl is a European fabless designer of high-performance, low-power CPUs for supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and sovereign data centers, and the consortium’s future technology partners, will contribute to the deployment of tens of thousands of processors and accelerators dedicated to the training and inference of artificial intelligence models. The consortium also intends to provide privileged access to emerging European technologies in order to accelerate their large-scale adoption. The third commitment is to achieve low-carbon energy across all consortium sites planned in Alsace as an initial step, with the support of the following partners. ÉS Group (Électricité de Strasbourg), the leading regional multi-energy provider and a mission-driven company, is committed to strengthening the competitiveness, electrification, and decarbonization of the Alsace region through its wide range of energy activities. Socomec is a French family-owned industrial group specializing in the availability and performance of critical electrical power systems. Projex is a French multidisciplinary engineering and critical infrastructure company, specializing in the design and delivery of data centers, as well as in energy performance and building decarbonization. Haffner Energy designs and supplies solutions for the production of electricity, renewable gases, hydrogen, and sustainable fuels from biomass. With more than 33 years of experience, the company has developed proprietary thermolysis and gasification technologies that provide local, cost-competitive, resilient, and lowcarbon energy for critical industrial infrastructure, including data centers, will support the development of energy generation, storage, and management capabilities, as well as the design of the low-carbon infrastructure required for the project. Collectively, these partners aim to demonstrate that the growth of artificial intelligence can be successfully aligned with the energy transition. The fourth commitment is based on ensuring full sovereignty over data and its use. ÆTHER’s infrastructure will be operated by European companies. Viridien is a global leader in advanced technologies, digital solutions, and Earth data, pushing the boundaries of science to help build a more prosperous and sustainable future. Viridien specializes in the design, optimization, and operation of highperformance computing infrastructures for scientific computing and industrial-scale artificial intelligence. Dassault Systèmes, through its OUTSCALE Cloud & AI brand, brings to ÆTHER the expertise of a sovereign cloud operator capable of industrializing AI in critical, secure, and fully controlled environments that comply with European requirements, serving regulated organizations, and the consortium’s future partners, will contribute their respective expertise in sovereign cloud computing, simulation, scientific computing, quantum computing, and mission-critical digital services. The fifth commitment is to fully integrate AI computing centers into their economic, academic, and regional ecosystems. In this context, local authorities—including the Grand Est Region and the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg—have already confirmed their support and their commitment to advancing the consortium’s vision. With a strong focus on economic development and attractiveness, job creation, regional reindustrialization, sovereignty, technological excellence, they will play a vital role as key partners in the successful delivery of the ÆTHER project, including through their own future use of its capabilities. “Artificial intelligence represents a historic opportunity for Europe’s reindustrialization. With ÆTHER, we are demonstrating that our continent already possesses all the expertise required to build its own strategic infrastructure,” said Alain Wilmouth, Chairman of 2CRSi and initiator of the consortium. “By combining SiPearl’s high-performance processors with Axelera AI’s accelerators in 2CRSi’s high-density servers, we will deliver a complete hardware solution capable of handling the most demanding AI workloads—with the added benefit of European sovereignty. We are delighted to play an active role in the ÆTHER consortium, which confirms Europe’s essential position in the global AI race,” said Philippe Notton, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SiPearl. The development of ÆTHER’s first campuses already benefits from the support of leading economic and institutional stakeholders across the Grand Est region. This initial deployment represents the first step in a European network of AI Gigafactories designed to meet the needs of industry, research, healthcare, public services, and businesses across Europe. Against a backdrop of intensifying global competition, ÆTHER is driven by a clear conviction: Europe must not only use artificial intelligence—it must also design, power, host, and operate it on its own soil. As a candidate for the European Commission’s AI Gigafactory call for proposals, ÆTHER aims to become the starting point for a true European industrial renaissance, driven by sovereign and sustainable artificial intelligence, rooted in local territories, and designed for deployment across the European continent. About SiPearl SiPearl is the European fabless designer of secure high-performance energy-efficient CPUs built for sovereign HPC, AI and data centre. These CPUs will help address strategic challenges in the fields of security, defence, medical research, energy, climate and engineering with a reduced environmental footprint. Featuring 80 Arm Neoverse V1 cores with 61 billion transistors, SiPearl’s first-generation CPU, Rhea1, will be released end of 2026. Sipearl’s CPUs will equip the two first European exascale supercomputers: Rhea1 will be integrated into the JUPITER machine based in Germany and Rhea2 will be part of Alice Recoque in France. Supported by the European Union and France, SiPearl employs 200 people in France, Spain, and Italy. Following a €130 million Series A, the company has launched its Series B round. About 2CRSi Founded in 2005 in Strasbourg, France, 2CRSi designs, develops, and manufactures high-performance computing servers and innovative solutions for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing (HPC), and data storage. Committed to responsible and sustainable practices, the Group operates across multiple continents and provides highly energy-efficient technology solutions to industries including technology, manufacturing, gaming, scientific research, and data centers. 2CRSi has been listed since June 2018 on the regulated market of Euronext Paris (ISIN code: FR0013341781) and was transferred to Euronext Growth in November 2022. For more information: https://2crsi.com. Source: SiPearl and 2CRSi
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