A recent Senate report has raised concerns about the environmental impact of data centers, suggesting that moving these large, energy-consuming facilities to France could be an opportunity for the country. However, the ecological and strategic arguments around this proposal are still being debated. During the FOST (Future of Software Technologies Conference) lecture series, Benoit Petit, co-founder of the research firm Hubblo, spoke about the lack of transparency in how data centers are being implemented in France. These data centers, which are set to become "major national interest projects" (PINM), are criticized for their unclear carbon footprint. This issue is particularly important as France aims to expand its data center infrastructure, both for environmental and economic reasons. While the Senate report encourages the development of more data centers in France for environmental reasons, many political efforts are also driven by the desire for strategic sovereignty. In a country known for nuclear power and the Mistral military ship, "the challenge is to link sovereignty to sustainability," says Gaël Duez, founder of the consulting firm GreenIO. Sébastien Soriano, author of The Fabric of Sovereignty and general director of the IGN, argues that "sovereignty is the necessary condition for a civilization project," referencing French cultural and historical markers like the Enlightenment and the single book price. According to the former president of the Arcep, it is crucial to show originality in how France chooses to develop its data centers. "French AI should not resemble American AI," Soriano argues. Instead of building massive data centers, France might benefit from adopting more "frugal" models that can run locally on its own machines. Benoit Petit adds that in terms of sustainability and control, the architecture of AI must be carefully considered. The "hyperscalers" — large companies with massive data centers — currently under construction in France are creating new challenges, he says. "A data center in France in 2024 is 7.5 megawatts. A hyperscaler at the time rarely exceeded 200 megawatts. Today we are talking about installations of 700, 1000, or 1200 megawatts," which is comparable to the electrical power of a nuclear reactor. Beyond high energy demands, these installations have other environmental impacts, such as water consumption and soil artificialization. While the Senate report touches on these issues, the details are limited. For instance, it notes that "data centers located in France only withdraw, according to the Arcep, 681,000 cubic meters of water per year," which leads some to claim that French data centers are more efficient than those in other countries. However, this figure only includes direct withdrawals for cooling and not those used for energy production. A larger figure of 6 million cubic meters, including both direct and indirect withdrawals, is mentioned, but not thoroughly examined. Benoit Petit adds that this still doesn't account for "scope 3," which includes all the water needed for the production of equipment and buildings. "Cooling is a drop in the bucket of water consumed if we take these three poles," he says. Land use concerns are also not fully detailed, though the commission notes that "data centers have indeed appeared in the latest economic land barometer [...] with land needs estimated at 5%" and an emphasis on reusing former industrial sites. The Fouju site in Seine-et-Marne, which has sparked controversy, is planned for agricultural land. The co-founder of Hubblo warns that "the probability of leakage of refrigerant gases is estimated at 3% per year. This would give 15 tons of PFAS in the middle of agricultural land." Similarly, the Étrechet site in the Indre, where Google wants to build a 195-hectare data center, raises questions about whether such a project truly represents French sovereignty. Despite promises of 1,500 jobs and tax benefits, the project's alignment with national interests is unclear, especially given the limited impact of such promises, as revealed by a recent Mediapart investigation. Sébastien Soriano suggests that sovereignty does not necessarily require huge investments in large-scale infrastructure. "You can achieve sovereignty without necessarily spending billions of euros," he says. He argues that the solution for sovereign AI may lie more in technical choices than in geographic ones. "We don't need European or national preference as long as the standard is open and adoptable," he adds. For Soriano, the future of sovereignty lies in open source, open data, and open weights models. "Being sovereign does not necessarily mean having done your own thing, it is mainly not being dependent. The commons are sovereign," he concludes. Is there an urgent need to bring data centers to France to run them on decarbonized electricity and push the country into the era of AI? "What does it mean to relocate the tech," questions Gaël Duez. With an environmental track record that is not entirely reassuring, perhaps it's time to reconsider our use of technology, as recently highlighted by a GreenIT study. The Ademe, a French environmental agency, has also noted that France's AI ambitions are "incompatible with the Paris Agreement."