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SoftBank to splash up to €75B on France AI capacity

1 June 2026 at 12:05

SoftBank Group committed to an investment of up to €75 billion to bolster AI data centre infrastructure in France, with the first phase of the project set to deliver 3.1GW of capacity.

SoftBank announced the investment at the 2026 Choose France summit, hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, marking the Japanese company’s largest AI infrastructure investments in Europe.

It has committed an initial €45 billion investment in the Hauts-de-France region, providing 3.1GW of capacity to data centres in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain. SoftBank will also develop additional sites, “reinforcing the country’s role as a leading European hub for next-generation digital infrastructure”.

For the Dunkirk deployment, SoftBank partnered with Schneider Electric to accelerate its buildout, while developing a large-scale industrial production cluster.

The cluster at the Port of Dunkirk will be a “key industrial pillar” for the company’s AI infrastructure programme in France, including the build out of two facilities. One will be operated by SoftBank to manufacture enclosures, while the other will be operated by Schneider Electric to integrate data centre power modules.

The duo explained the partnership will combine SoftBank’s robotics and automation capabilities with Schneider’s industrial expertise and local supply chain network to support the deployment of next-generation AI data centres at scale.

The industrial cluster is also designed to support Dunkirk’s ambition to become a leading hub for robotics, advanced manufacturing and industrial innovation.

Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, said AI is entering a new era and countries that build infrastructure for this transformation “will shape the future of technology, industry and society”.

“SoftBank is proud to make this major commitment to France. With its industrial capabilities, talent base and national ambition, France is uniquely positioned to become a leading AI infrastructure hub in Europe.”

The company said it will also work with SB Energy and other strategic partners to deliver the projects.

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Qualcomm boss sets out agentic AI ambitions

1 June 2026 at 12:05

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon used his keynote at the annual Computex event in Taiwan to stake the company’s claim in the next phase of AI, arguing the technology will reshape demand for compute across devices, networks and data centres.

Amon described 2026 as the “year of the agent”, stating AI is moving from prompt-based interactions to autonomous systems capable of planning, reasoning and acting across smartphones, PCs, cars, robots and industrial equipment.

“Agents are not coming in the future. They’re already here,” he said, adding the shift is “changing a lot of the compute” and could generate “a lot of demand for new classes of devices and computing”, creating “one of the largest” upgrade cycles the industry has seen.

Amon said the smartphone will no longer sit alone at the nexus of the digital ecosystem. “Agents become the centre of your digital experience,” he stated, adding devices will increasingly become “endpoints for agents”.

Compute continuum
To this end, the executive laid out Qualcomm’s ambition to support the AI infrastructure transition. Amon pointed to the need for CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and connectivity designed to support AI workloads both on devices and in the cloud, stating the company can help scale AI compute from “sub-2 milliwatts” in devices such as earbuds to kilowatt-level systems in data centres.

He also stressed the engineering challenge around battery life and latency, noting devices must be able to support complex planning, reasoning and coordination. “I cannot emphasise enough the importance of power,” he said.

In addition, Amon framed 6G as a key part of the future AI architecture, noting it is the first wireless generation designed as an AI-native network connecting distributed, hybrid intelligence across devices and data centres.

During the event, the chief also unveiled Dragonfly, Qualcomm’s new data centre brand aimed at inference workloads. He said Qualcomm is already working with hyperscalers and global partners on deployments, adding the fresh brand will allow its portfolio to span “every single tier of the compute continuum”.

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EU pushes for access to Anthropic model as fears grow

1 June 2026 at 09:41

The European Union (EU) is pressing for deeper talks with the US administration over advanced AI models, and at the heart of the conversation is Anthropic’s Mythos.

There are growing concerns among governments over the security implications of Mythos, which Anthropic released to private companies in April.

Its release triggered an immediate wave of concern when it surfaced the model could identify tens of thousands of software vulnerabilities at a scale no previous system had demonstrated.

The AI player introduced its Mythos model on 7 April, under the auspices of Project Glasswing, to a limited number of technology companies including Amazon Web Services, Apple, Nvidia and Google.

Anthropic expects to bring Mythos-class models to all customers in the coming weeks.

Bloomberg previously reported the EU made limited progress in securing access to details of vulnerabilities Anthropic’s Mythos AI model could reveal.

European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told Mobile World Live (MWL) the agency has had several meetings with Anthropic to understand the capability of the model, its implications for the cybersecurity of the EU and Anthropic’s plan around Project Glasswing.

“We will keep discussing with the company the cyber capabilities and risks of its latest model,” he stated.

CNBC reported Anthropic has yet to grant the EU, its AI office or any government organisations outside of the US, aside from the UK’s AI Security Institute, preview access to Mythos.

Since August 2025, the European Commission’s AI Office has held regular technical meetings with Anthropic tied to the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice, to which the company is a signatory.

A spokesperson for the EC noted Mythos is not a one-off as a “new wave of powerful models are coming to the market”.

The EC stated parallel progress is being made towards releasing OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber to trusted EU entities.

The EC spokesperson told MWL it is intensifying discussions with the US, “particularly on the most advanced AI models, including those with cyber capabilities”.

“Cybersecurity is a shared priority and we have agreed to mutually recognise our respective standards in this area,” the spokesperson stated.  “On EU side, we are also stepping up our cyber defences through targeted investments in AI and supercomputing.”

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