Bell is on track to produce Canada’s largest data centre after signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Province of Saskatchewan.
The news: To close out the first day of the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, Prime Minister Mark Carney, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and Bell CEO Mirko Bibic announced an agreement to expand Bell’s data centre operation in Saskatchewan by 900 megawatts on Monday afternoon.
The non-binding MOU expands on an initial agreement between Bell and Saskatchewan this past March for a 300-megawatt data centre just outside Regina. The new commitment brings the project up to a 1.2-gigawatt capacity.
Bell said the project’s total capital investment could exceed $50 billion. This would mark the largest private capital investment in Saskatchewan’s history, Carney said on stage. He added that Bell’s AI Fabric is the largest sovereign AI infrastructure network in Canada.
From the source: “There’s two ways to manage this,” Carney said. “You can have your data sent elsewhere, or you can build it right here, on Canadian ground, with Canadian power, and Canadian law, and with the confidence that comes from being a stable and open partner.”
The context: Bell’s expansion follows the federal government and some provinces, including Saskatchewan, setting down ground rules for data centre development across Canada. Saskatchewan said Bell’s expansion was approved under its Data Centre Framework, which stipulates that projects should be Canadian-owned, uphold data sovereignty, and bring their own power.
Before Monday’s announcement, Alberta held the crown for Canada’s largest data centre development through its agreement with Meta to build a one-gigawatt, AI-optimized data centre northeast of Edmonton.
Final thought: Ahead of the Canada Investment Summit, multiple Canadian data centre projects were listed on a pitchbook sent out to attendees last week; Bell’s Saskatchewan project was not on the list.
Earlier Monday, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez told the Canadian Global Growth Forum that he believed that Canada has the potential to become a superpower in data centres.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Mark Carney via X.