“Join Æther Infrastructures, the first AI Gigafactory aiming to be carbon negative”
At the end of January 2026, Alain Wilmouth, chief executive of 2CRSi, slipped this call in response to a LinkedIn post by Julie Galland. The latter was discussing the involvement of the CEA—where she serves as Director of Technological Research—in the design of datacenters “more energy-efficient.”
Æther Infrastructures had been in existence since June 2025, but remained largely off the radar. The consortium was set to come to light in mid-February 2026 at the Choose France summit. For its part, 2CRSi announced the launching of an “exclusive negotiation” aimed at acquiring an industrial site in the Grand Est region.
This site “could progressively evolve from an initial electrical capacity of 40 MW to a maximum of 300 MW,” we were told. It would fit into a “broader roadmap aimed at ultimately structuring a network of interconnected sites, notably in Germany and Luxembourg.” There were talks—in no official timetable—of installing servers at “more than 130 kW per rack” and integrating “the next generations of processors” (Vera Rubin and AMD Instinct were cited). While also facilitating bare-metal access to European tech players in emergence, such as SiPearl, Axelera, Vsora, or Vates.
2CRSi described itself as both the industrial initiator and the technical coordinator of the project. A publicly traded Alsatian SME that designs and manufactures servers had taken care to specify that a separate structure, “bringing together specialized partners,” would handle the financial, real estate, and energy carrying. There would thus be no impact on its balance sheet…
The composition and timeline of Æther come into sharper focus
A few weeks ago, 2CRSi had promised a start “by the end of 2026.” Now they are talking about 2027. But also two sites in the Strasbourg region. The first (FR-SXB1) already has the installations and the required administrative authorizations. A definitive acquisition is targeted by no later than October 2026. The second (SXB-2) should begin “a few months later, subject to finalizing the definitive acquisition of the site before the end of December 2026.” The final objective has been raised to over 400 MW.
The proceedings are being carried by a SAS with a capital of €1 million created in April 2026: Æther Infrastructures. Based in Sarreguemines (Moselle), its president is… Alain Wilmouth’s holding company.
Against this backdrop, the Æther consortium formalizes its candidacy for the European Commission’s upcoming call for AI Gigafactories. Simultaneously, it outlines its composition. It includes 13 founding members, listed in alphabetical order:
- 2CRSi
- Axelera AI (Netherlands; accelerator chips)
- Dassault Systèmes
- Demathieu Bard (construction company; registered office in Moselle)
- Électricité de Strasbourg
- Equans (energy and services; Bouygues group)
- Haffner Energy (renewable fuels; registered office in Marne)
- Nhood (mixed real estate services operator; registered office in the Nord)
- OUTSCALE (Dassault Systèmes’ cloud subsidiary)
- Projex (building consulting and engineering; registered office in the Nord)
- SiPearl (processors; registered office in Yvelines)
- Socomec (electrical equipment; registered office in Bas-Rhin)
- Viridien (geoscience services; registered office in Essonne)
Already more than six months behind schedule on the tender
SiPearl, highlighted at Choose France, is indeed part of the lineup. By contrast, VSORA has joined a competing consortium: AION. This group, formed about a year ago, brings together around thirty organizations. It estimates its AI Gigafactory project could require €10 billion in investments. It targets an initial tranche of around 100 MW, without specifying where this capacity would be located.
The European Commission has pledged €20 billion in funding for five AI Gigafactory projects. Of that, about €8 billion would be in the form of public subsidies, split 50-50 between the EU and the member states that will host these infrastructures. Its call for expressions of interest (AMI) closed in June 2025 and generated nearly 80 expressions of interest for 60 sites across 16 countries. It was then expected that the tender would be launched in the fourth quarter of 2025.
That has still not happened. Now, the tender is planned “in the summer.” Behind the scenes, there seem to be doubts about the actual availability of subsidies. Only two projects could receive one under the EU budget for 2021-2027. The others might have to wait for the next multiannual financial framework (2028-2034). The situation appears to have had a deterrent effect: only about a dozen consortia remain in the running.
