Ask most British business owners where their AI tools actually run and you will get a shrug.
The honest answer is in data centres, and Europe does not have nearly enough of the kind built for AI. Power hungry, packed with specialist chips and expensive to build, these facilities have become one of the tightest bottlenecks in technology.
A company listed in Paris has just put its hand up to help close that gap. On October 2nd, Financière Marjos announced plans to invest in acquiring, developing and operating AI data centres in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It also intends to rename itself Future Infra SCA, subject to a shareholder vote.
The company has no operating business today, so this is a fresh start rather than an expansion. To get moving quickly, it plans to work through joint ventures with WhiteFiber (Nasdaq: WYFI), an American firm that already develops, owns and runs AI data centres. The two companies share a controlling shareholder in Bit Digital (Nasdaq: BTBT).
WhiteFiber would bring the practical know how: finding sites, buying them, building, operating and arranging finance. Future Infra would build its first set of projects through that partnership, then gradually develop its own portfolio in Europe and markets such as Japan, Singapore and Australia.
The focus is on sites that already have reliable access to electricity. That includes converting old industrial premises into AI and high performance computing campuses, which tends to be faster than waiting years for a brand new grid connection.
The proposed leadership team is Sam Tabar as chief executive, Bryan Bullett as chief strategy and capital markets officer, Erke Huang as chief financial officer and Philippe Gellman as joint managing partner, looking after French institutional investors.
“A partnership with WhiteFiber would give the company immediate access to a proven data centre platform and a portfolio of projects, while we progressively build our own capabilities and our own portfolio internationally,” said Tabar.
These plans notwithstanding, there are a yet few hurdles before any of this happens.
France’s financial regulator, the AMF, needs to confirm that no buyout offer to minority shareholders is required. Bit Digital has applied for that decision. If it comes through, the company plans to raise equity in early 2027, depending on market conditions.
