It is a data center like no other, which Eclairion is completing its construction in Bruyères-le-Chatel (Essonne). When it welcomes its customers’ servers in the summer of 2025, this site, called the “Open AI Architecture Factory”, will be the first fully modular high-density computing center in France and in the world. The investment amounts to 320 million euros.
The future data center has prestigious neighbors. From the top floor of the buildings, the visitor can, in fact, see the facilities on the edge of the protected area, where, among others, the Very Large Computing Center (TGCC) of the Atomic Energy Authority (CEA) is located. .
“Our center aims to accommodate all uses of supercomputing and especially artificial intelligence. All the latest generation large AI machines, due to their electrical density, need dedicated and specialized infrastructure, which is what we are proposing.” This was explained, Thursday, December 19, during a press visit, by Arnand Lipenois, General Manager of HPC Groupe, the parent company of Eclairion.
The site’s power supply is sized to power the most power-hungry servers. “We will be able to provide IT power of at least 40 megawatts, knowing that this power can be delivered in batches of one, two or three megawatts by adapting to customer needs.”noted Philip Luce, project consultant.
Modularity and flexibility of operation
The servers are installed in container modules of approximately 50 square meters provided by Eclairion which the customer can configure according to their needs. The same applies to other equipment (electrical power supply and cooling system). Each IT module can accommodate approximately twenty spaces. The containers will be mounted on a metal grid that is almost completely removable.
“Modularity means you can set up your machines and leave them in and out of the container to place your other machines, as well as change the cooling mode depending on the machines.”François Sabatino, President of Eclairion, confirmed. When operational, the data center will employ about one hundred people, a third of whom will be dedicated to security and another third responsible for general services.
The project received a grant of three million euros from the Ile-de-France Regional Council. “The IDF is the leading European center for artificial intelligence and wants to maintain this leadership, which is why we must invest in places like Eclairon Place, which represents the future of artificial intelligence with great computing power and contributes to our national sovereignty.”For her part, Alexandra Duplanche, Vice President of the Ile-de-France region in charge of economic development and innovation, recalled.
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