A multinational cloud computing services provider has signed a memorandum of understanding with the French government to build one of the world’s largest “decarbonised” AI supercomputers, using France’s “abundant, carbon-free, and predominantly nuclear energy” to provide up to 1 GW of dedicated power.

Fluidstack, founded in 2017 at Oxford University in England, said the project positions France as a premier global AI hub, offering unparalleled compute capacity for next-generation AI models.

Fluidstack said in a statement it would make an initial €10bn ($10.3bn) investment for Phase 1 of the project with 1 GW of compute power and plans to expand beyond that by 2028.

It said the supercomputer would have “a net-zero carbon footprint, powered by nuclear energy and leveraging waste heat recovery”.