Bull Opens New Production Building in France

Bull, a player in advanced computing and AI, opened its new production building in Angers, marking a major milestone in the complete reconstruction of its historic industrial site.The transformation, representing a total investment of €80 million, provides the company with a unique industrial facility in Europe capable of designing, integrating, assembling, testing and validating supercomputers, artificial intelligence infrastructures, enterprise servers and, in the future, quantum technologies. Through this investment, Bull underscores its ambition to support the growth and infrastructure needs of sovereign computing and artificial intelligence.

An investment designed for the decades ahead
The inauguration of the new building marks a major milestone in a reconstruction and modernization project due for completion in 2028. Driven by a long-term industrial ambition, the project combines industrial excellence, competitiveness, environmental responsibility and an enhanced working environment.

Designed to address the evolution of next-generation digital infrastructures, the new site is based on Industry 5.0 concepts, enabling production areas to be reconfigured whenever necessary and allowing for greater automation, virtualization and the use of collaborative robots.

From an energy perspective, the new building incorporates more than 3,500 photovoltaic panels with a combined peak capacity of 1,500 kWp, power supplied from renewable energy sources, and a heat recovery system that captures waste heat produced by equipment that will ultimately provide enough energy to supply the equivalent of 600 households.

The project also aims to provide employees with facilities that foster collaboration and creativity in a more modern and attractive working environment.

The new site at a glance:

• 20,000m² total surface area
• 10,700m² dedicated to production
• 2x increase in production capacity
• +30% productivity
• -30% building maintenance costs
• 3,500 photovoltaic panels across 7,000m², with a combined peak capacity of 1,500 kWp
• Waste heat recovery target: 5GWh/year injected into the district heating network

The overall redevelopment of the site is being carried out by Alter Cités, a local public development company serving the Anjou region and the Greater Angers metropolitan area. The project has benefited from €1.2 million in funding through the Ecological Transition Acceleration Fund for Local Authorities (known as the Green Fund), an additional €213,000 grant from ADEME through its Heat Fund, and €1.5 million in support from the Pays de la Loire Regional Council.

A unique factory in Europe at the heart of Bull’s transformation
As the only industrial site in Europe capable of assembling large-scale supercomputers, the Angers factory manufactures, integrates, tests and validates some of the world’s most powerful and energy-efficient digital infrastructures. The site has significantly contributed to major projects such as JUPITER, Europe’s first supercomputer capable of one quintillion calculations per second, as well as the three most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world according to the Green500 ranking.

Today, Bull brings unique expertise in supercomputers, enterprise servers and quantum technologies together within the site, while accelerating its capabilities in artificial intelligence. The Angers factory is set to play a central role in the development of future European AI infrastructures, combining the latest innovations of its 800 R&D engineers with an ecosystem of market-leading partners. In 2027, it will deliver Alice Recoque, the next European exascale supercomputer hosted in France, and LUMI-AI, the system at the heart of the LUMI AI Factory hosted in Finland.

An “Open Factory” program serving European re-industrialization
As part of the inauguration, Bull is launching its Open Factory program, designed to make its industrial capabilities available to companies developing strategic technologies in artificial intelligence, advanced computing and quantum technologies. The program pursues a dual objective: reshoring infrastructure manufacturing to Europe and helping technology players cross the industrialization threshold by moving from laboratory or R&D environments to large-scale production.

Building on its expertise in the design, integration and assembly of complex systems, Bull intends to support the development of future AI GigaFactories, neocloud providers and hybrid architectures combining high-performance computing and quantum technologies. The recently announced strategic partnership with Foxconn represents the first tangible outcome of this approach. The initiative aims to design and manufacture AI servers in Europe, based on the Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 platform, for AI Factories and cloud providers.

This first step further cements Bull’s Angers factory as a key industrial pillar of the European advanced computing and artificial intelligence ecosystem. Additional industrial partnerships enabling the industrialization of new AI and quantum technologies in Europe will be announced in early 2027 as part of the Open Factory program.

“In a world that is becoming increasingly fragmented, including in the digital sphere, it is imperative that France and Europe retain control over their own computing capabilities. This is the strategic choice the French State made on 31 March by becoming Bull’s sole shareholder. Six months later, the relevance of that decision is already evident in both the announcement of the LUMI-AI contract, the largest in the company’s history, and the doubling of the capacity of its historic manufacturing site, which we celebrate today. Since 1963, Angers has weathered every chapter and every storm of European computing alongside Bull. Today, it is here that some of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers are built. I would like to pay tribute to the women and men of this site for their expertise and commitment. What they are building is more than technology or industrial infrastructure: it is a part of our national and European independence,” said Roland Lescure, French minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty.

“Since opening in 1963, the Angers factory has been a key part of Bull’s history and major milestones. Today, it embodies the company’s transformation: from a historic computing player to a leading industrial partner for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and sovereign digital infrastructures. This factory reflects our conviction that Europe must have the industrial capabilities required to produce tomorrow’s strategic digital infrastructures on its own territory. This new industrial facility will support the next generation of supercomputers, AI infrastructures and advanced computing technologies, helping nations and organizations strengthen their strategic autonomy,” concluded Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO, Bull.