Do you know that Canadian firms are among the many world’s greatest gamers in AI infrastructure?
Not many individuals realize it, nevertheless it’s true.
Canadian firms are among the many greatest suppliers of power to U.S. AI firms, in addition to among the greatest operators of AI knowledge centres. On this article, I discover only a few of the various Canadian firms constructing AI infrastructure, beginning with one that will shock you.
Supply: Getty Photos
BCE Inc
BCE (TSX:BCE) is a Canadian telecommunications firm that’s greatest identified for operating media shops and offering mobile/web service to Canadians. Few ever noticed this firm branching out into AI, however now that’s what’s taking place.
BCE made statements to the impact that it was engaged on AI way back; extra just lately, it made its plans clear. Final week, the corporate introduced its plan to construct an AI knowledge centre in Regina, Saskatchewan. The plan will see Bell assemble a 160-acre large of a facility, with an goal to create a nationwide AI computing community.
What’s going to BCE’s AI knowledge centre be used for?
For now, this system’s objectives are imprecise, however BCE is thought to be partnering with universities to fund analysis initiatives, and promoting computing to different firms. So, this venture might be an enormous income driver for BCE.
Brookfield
A number of of Brookfield Company’s (TSX:BN) subsidiaries are concerned in constructing out Canadian and world AI infrastructure.
Most clearly, Brookfield Infrastructure Companions (TSX:BIP.UN) is constructing out a community of AI knowledge centres throughout Canada and america. The corporate indicators long-term “take or pay” offers with “hyperscalers,” the place the large firms pay for the actual property, energy grids and cooling methods, whereas bringing in their very own servers. This can be a intelligent enterprise mannequin as a result of it leaves BIP.UN with out the accountability of paying for expensive NVIDIA GPUs whose ROI is questionable in the mean time. As an alternative, BIP.UN merely collects hire from the businesses doing the large spending.
Much less clearly, Brookfield Renewable Companions (TSX:BEP.UN) is supplying clear power to the large American AI giants. The corporate signed an settlement to produce Microsoft with 10 gigawatts of unpolluted energy in 2024; it adopted that up by signing the same take care of Alphabet in 2025. These offers are projected to generate billions in income. They’ll additionally seemingly increase Brookfield’s profile.
So, Brookfield Corp is one firm that, by means of its partially-owned subsidiaries, is powering the AI revolution.
Granite
Granite REIT (TSX:GRT.UN) is a Canadian industrial actual property funding belief that’s presently exploring the opportunity of changing a few of its properties into knowledge centres. It already owns a portfolio of warehouse, multi-purpose and specialised amenities serving industrial tenants. AI knowledge centres are much like warehouses in that they require quite a lot of area to accommodate principally issues slightly than folks. Granite REIT shouldn’t be straight creating wealth off AI but, however the plans and the potential are each there.
Silly takeaway
The underside line on Canadian infrastructure builders is that they’re doing large issues in AI. Generative AI requires energy, knowledge centres and telco gear, and Canada has all three of those key belongings in spades. This benefit positions the businesses above completely within the age of AI, whether or not or not large tech ever sees a return on its GPU spending.
