France is attracting global investments in artificial intelligence, but this capital is not enough to guarantee it reaps the economic benefits. The country aims to establish itself as a major destination for digital infrastructure, and this ambition runs into a question: who actually captures the value?
On November 3, 2026, Reuters reported a surge in opposition to data centers in several countries, from Finland to the United States. Behind these protests lies the same question: do the territories hosting these artificial intelligence infrastructures actually reap the benefits? The debate goes beyond the environmental issue and touches on the industrial strategy of states.
Investing billions is not enough to create as much wealth
Announcements are coming one after another in France, international investors are positioning themselves, and projects are taking on an unprecedented industrial scale. The Fouju AI campus in Seine-et-Marne is an example. Backed notably by the Emirati fund MGX, Bpifrance, Mistral AI and Nvidia, it is estimated at 50 billion euros according to The Local.
A study by Rexecode, published in July 2026 and presented by Le Monde on July 25, 2026, estimates that 210 billion euros in investments in data centers could be made in France by 2035. However, only 30% of the direct value added generated by these infrastructures would remain in the country, according to the firm’s estimates.
A significant portion of the necessary equipment and technology is imported, mainly from the United States and Asia. France can therefore host considerable infrastructures without mastering the entire value chain, i.e., the sequence of steps from component manufacturing to service operation.
A competition not fought on equal terms
The United States has companies capable of controlling several strategic links: chips, cloud infrastructure, models, and artificial intelligence services. China, for its part, is developing a technological ecosystem supported by a long-term industrial policy.
Faced with these powers, France has assets, but it must attract international capital while developing its own capabilities. This situation creates a paradox: to strengthen its autonomy, it sometimes has to rely on the companies and technologies on which it seeks to reduce its dependence. The risk, the column points out, would be to become a privileged host territory for the global AI economy without managing to master its main benefits.
Capturing value rather than just hosting
In Fouju, the protests illustrate the tensions between national ambitions and territorial concerns. Land, energy, and environmental issues fuel the debate. The Rexecode data, cited by Le Monde, emphasize that data centers are relatively low providers of permanent jobs relative to the investments made. A 100 MW site, i.e., a unit of electrical power, would generate about fifty direct jobs during the operational phase, according to estimates from the Directorate General for Enterprises.
For the author of the column, the jobs created, tax revenues, training, and partnerships with local companies should be an integral part of the evaluation of these projects. He believes the next step should not be to multiply announcements, but to strengthen French companies capable of supplying equipment, software, and services, and to better integrate local authorities into industrial strategies. “We must move from a logic of attractiveness to a true logic of value creation,” he writes.
The global competition for artificial intelligence is entering a new phase, and infrastructure is becoming an instrument of power, just like industrial capabilities and energy resources.
