French telecom operator Orange is strengthening its data center footprint by announcing a 34 billion USD (3 billion euros) 50-50 joint venture with investment firm Morrison, targeting the deployment of 400 MW of sovereign computing capacity. Through this partnership, Orange aims to nearly triple its computational capabilities.

Orange has established a strong presence in the cloud services sector. The company operates its own sovereign data centers to provide AI services to its employees and maintains an in-house telecom cloud. Its Orange Business division has long offered private cloud services. In 2024, Orange also partnered with Capgemini and Microsoft to launch Bleu—a cloud platform designed to meet the needs of French government agencies and critical enterprises.

Orange Group CEO Christel Heydemann stated during the Q2 2026 earnings call that the transaction represents a way for operators to extract greater value from their current data centers used for network and IT infrastructure as well as Orange Business customer services. She noted, “We not only see the potential to upgrade these data centers but also recognize their substantial untapped power and connectivity resources. Therefore, we decided to unlock this potential and establish a dedicated entity to manage it, as this is a fundamentally different business.”

Orange will contribute five data center park sites in Chevilly-Larue, Aubervilliers, Chartres, and Val-de-Reuil. Heydemann stated that Orange has been consolidating its data center footprint in France, planning to close smaller enterprise data center-type sites. The five sites included in the joint venture are all “future-ready” facilities. Morrison will provide equity and debt financing, while Orange Business will serve as the exclusive distribution partner for hosting and colocation services for both enterprise and public sectors.

Orange’s Executive Vice President for Finance, Performance, and Development, Laurent Martinez, noted that Orange expects to benefit from the revenue and profits generated by Orange Business using these facilities to provide B2B services, while also improving the efficiency of these specific assets. He added, “Of course, there is ultimately the value created through the development and expansion of these assets. We hold a 50% share of the total value creation from the intrinsic value of the joint venture.” The joint venture transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.