Canada's BCE to invest $1.7 billion in Saskatchewan AI data centre

Canadian telecom firm BCE said on Monday it will invest an additional $1.7 billion to build a 300-megawatt AI data center in Saskatchewan, with Cerebras and CoreWeave signed on as tenants.

BCE unit Bell Canada is working with ‌the provincial government ⁠to build ⁠and run the AI data centre.

Once complete, ​it will be the largest purpose-built AI data center development anywhere ​in Canada, Bell Canada said.


BCE expects to incur about $1.3 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 for ​the construction of this facility. ⁠The investment ‌will be funded through a ​combination of debt ​and cash on hand. Cerebras will ⁠supply AI chips for large-scale training and computing, ​while CoreWeave will provide AI computing ​capacity using Nvidia processors.

Construction is set to begin this spring, with the facility coming online in phases, and the first stage expected to be operational in the first half of 2027.

The ‌facility will serve as a regional hub for advanced computing, helping expand Canada's AI ​ecosystem while ​delivering economic benefits ⁠to Saskatchewan.

The data centre will be connected to Bell's fibre network through a partnership with SaskTel, with ​the two companies acting as go-to-market partners to offer AI-powered products and services to SaskTel customers.

BCE raised its forecast for AI-powered solutions revenue to about $2 billion by 2028, from about $1.5 billion earlier.