Swedish startup evroc has unveiled plans for a hyperscale AI data center in Mougins, France, near the Sophia Antipolis tech park, where the company already operates a development office. The 96-megawatt facility, designed to house around 50,000 GPUs, is set to become operational later this year.
This marks another step in evroc’s bold mission to create a European alternative to American cloud giants like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The company’s announcement coincides with the AI Action Summit in Paris, where governments and tech leaders are discussing AI infrastructure investments.
The move follows evroc’s announcement in 2023 that it aimed to raise €3 billion within two years to build two hyperscale data centers in Europe. The first, located near Stockholm’s Arlandastad Airport, will begin construction in late 2025, while the new French facility will be the company’s second. The total investment required for full capacity in France is estimated at €4 billion.
Challenging Foreign Dominance in Cloud Services
Founded in 2022 by Mattias Åström, Andreas Birnik, and Andreas Jönsson, evroc launched out of stealth in 2023 with an initial €13 million in funding from EQT Ventures, Norrsken VC, and other investors. In August 2024, it raised an additional €42 million to further its expansion.
“Europe has unfortunately fallen behind in cloud services, and American players currently control more than 80 percent of the total cloud market,” says CEO Mattias Åström. “We founded evroc to put an end to this foreign dominance.” evroc’s long-term goal is to establish a network of 10 hyperscale data centers across Europe by 2030, reinforcing Europe’s digital sovereignty. “We see France as a central hub for AI research and innovation,” Åström said.
Sustainability and Energy Efficiency
evroc is focused on sustainable cloud infrastructure, optimizing power usage by dynamically shifting workloads based on renewable energy availability. For instance, non-urgent data processing can be routed to Spain when solar energy is abundant, to the Netherlands when wind power is strong, or to northern Sweden when hydroelectric power is at peak production. This approach aligns with the European Union’s €2 billion investment in sustainable cloud infrastructure under the European Data Strategy, which aims to enhance energy efficiency and digital security.
A Growing Cloud Infrastructure Race
As geopolitical tensions over AI infrastructure rise, evroc is positioning itself as Europe’s homegrown hyperscale cloud provider, challenging the dominance of U.S. and Chinese cloud providers.
In 2025, construction will begin on evroc’s flagship hyperscale data center in Stockholm with plans for other European locations in the works, aiming to strengthening its vision for a fully European cloud infrastructure. If evroc meets its ambitious targets, it could reshape Europe’s cloud computing landscape and reduce the continent’s reliance on foreign technology.
