Data centres: US backlash ‘could also reach France,’ warns France’s Finance Ministry

The backlash against data centres sweeping the United States “could also reach France,” France’s Economy Minister Roland Lescure acknowledged on Wednesday, urging the companies building AI infrastructure to persuade local residents of the benefits- “as with nuclear power before them.”

“There has been pushback here, probably more than in Europe,” the minister noted during a press briefing in San Francisco. “Honestly, in various forms, this could also happen in France. We are very aware of that.”

The minister was speaking on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in North Carolina, where the CEOs of Nvidia, Meta and SpaceX urged governments to build more of these energy-intensive facilities, which have become a major issue in the US midterm elections.

On Monday, Donald Trump lambasted their opponents, predicting they would end up “backward and poor.”

“Anyone setting up a data centre must convince,” argued the minister, “and explain to local residents why it is good for them: it will create jobs and generate value that will be shared.”

In France, “in the 1970s, when we started building nuclear power stations, local people weren’t particularly happy,” the minister recalled. “Fifty years on, when we say we’re going to build new ones, those who already have them want more, because they’ve seen the local benefits over time.”

AI companies must earn their “social licence”- that is, acceptance by local residents- “just as nuclear power stations had to do in the 1970s, just as the TGV did in the 1980s, and just as wind farms must do today,” he added.

Visiting Silicon Valley to meet key players, the minister highlighted France’s “low-carbon and inexpensive” electricity, a “stable” power grid and fast-track authorisation procedures. He also praised the French industrial sector, citing Schneider Electric and Legrand, which “are helping to build AI infrastructure, including data centres.”

As with the revival of nuclear power, this new supply chain must “bring prosperity to France to fund our social model, which is becoming increasingly costly,” he argued.

Speaking to AFP on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G20 meeting, European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen said it was “not a good solution” for these data centres to be concentrated in the few European countries with abundant, low-carbon energy.