Orange, Morrison Plan €3B French Data Centre JV Targeting 400 MW

European telecoms are quietly turning into landlords for AI compute, and Orange just made the biggest single move in that direction. Orange and global infrastructure investor Morrison signed an exclusivity agreement to spin Orange's French data centre estate into a jointly controlled company, according to Bloomberg and a joint statement carried by The Manila Times. Each party would hold 50%, and the platform would be backed by a €3 billion investment programme funded by Orange's existing assets, Morrison equity, and debt.

The scale part is what makes this a story rather than a portfolio tidy-up. The joint venture targets 400 MW of capacity, described in the announcement as nearly ten times Orange's current level. To get there Orange would contribute five data centres across four French campuses (Chevilly-Larue, Aubervilliers, Chartres and Val-de-Reuil), along with its operational expertise, while Morrison brings equity funding and infrastructure investment experience.

The framing is sovereignty. Orange and Morrison are pitching this as a way to position France as a leading location for digital infrastructure operated within France, with Orange Business acting as the exclusive partner for the distribution of the venture's colocation and hosting offers to large enterprises, SMEs and public-sector entities. That last piece is the commercial teeth: it locks the JV into Orange's enterprise sales motion rather than leaving it to compete cold against US-owned colocation.

The honest caveat is that everything here is still on paper. The parties expect to sign the transaction by the end of 2026, with closing in the first quarter of 2027, subject to consultation with relevant employee representative bodies and receipt of required regulatory approvals. The reporting does not break out how much of the €3 billion is Morrison equity versus debt, name specific hyperscaler tenants, or set a delivery schedule for the 400 MW build-out, so the pace of the ramp is guesswork.

For anyone weighing where to place regulated European workloads, the ledger shifts a little. There is now a credible French-controlled hyperscale-adjacent option in the works alongside the US majors, and the ramp, if it happens, will be worth watching campus by campus.