Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Data4 has announced plans to invest €5 billion in the development of a new data centre campus in Escaudain, in France’s Hauts-de-France region. The project will redevelop the former industrial site known as Parc des Soufflantes and is expected to become the company’s largest data centre campus in France.
The planned campus will provide 700 MW of capacity and is designed to support growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. According to Data4, the development is expected to create approximately 2,400 permanent jobs once fully operational.
The project follows the company’s selection by the La Porte du Hainaut agglomeration authority in late 2025 as the exclusive partner for the redevelopment of the former Usinor industrial site.
Data4 currently operates several large-scale data centre campuses in France, including facilities developed on former industrial sites previously occupied by Alcatel and Nokia near Paris. Together, those campuses provide around 500 MW of capacity.
The Escaudain project will occupy a 33-hectare site and forms part of Data4’s broader European expansion strategy. The company has stated that it plans to invest more than €20 billion across its European campuses by 2030.
The development is being supported through France’s “fast track” programme for strategic data centre projects, an initiative established by the French government and transmission system operator RTE to accelerate the identification and preparation of suitable sites for digital infrastructure investments.
Additional studies and preliminary construction works are expected to continue over the next 12 months. The campus will eventually comprise four next-generation data centres.
According to Data4, the facilities will incorporate environmental measures including the use of low-carbon concrete and systems designed to recover waste heat generated by servers.
Hauts-de-France has become an increasingly attractive location for data centre investment due to its position between the major European digital markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris, as well as its access to power infrastructure and connectivity networks.
As part of the project, Data4 also plans to establish a training and innovation centre called “Data4 For All”, which will focus on education, research and entrepreneurship in cooperation with local schools, institutions and associations.
