BCE, the largest telecommunications provider in Canada, is planning to establish a series of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers across the nation, a move that mimics the rapid AI infrastructure growth seen in the United States and other countries. The company’s CEO, Mirko Bibic, announced that Bell Canada will invest substantial resources into developing these facilities in six cities throughout Canada, with the first one set to open in Kamloops, British Columbia, as early as June. This Kamloops facility will feature US-based AI chip startup Groq as a key tenant.

The initiative, named the Bell AI Fabric project, is expected to reach a capacity of 500 MW, which will provide a significant amount of power for AI applications. While this capacity is considerable, it is notably less than the multi-gigawatt facilities currently being constructed in various regions such as the United States, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Groq’s CEO, Jonathan Ross, highlighted the company’s role as the exclusive partner in inference for this data center network.

Countries around the globe are ramping up efforts to bolster their domestic AI capabilities, a trend known as sovereign AI. In recent weeks, nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced collaborations with American tech giants, including Nvidia and OpenAI, to enhance local AI infrastructure. This surge is driven by the escalating requirement for computing power to create and deploy AI models, alongside a desire for systems tailored to specific local demands and languages.

Bibic emphasized the importance of having Canadian-operated and managed AI and cloud capabilities, expressing a need to ensure that Canada remains technologically resilient in the face of potential geopolitical conflicts. He pointed out that while Canadian researchers have been at the forefront of AI innovation, commercialization has lagged behind.

In addition to BCE’s efforts, Telus Corporation, another major Canadian telecommunications firm, has also announced plans to invest over CAD 70 billion (approximately USD 50 billion) in upgrading its network infrastructure, which will include support for data centers and what they term “sovereign AI factories.”

The development of local AI data centers is increasingly vital to meet the rising demand for inference processes—those tasks performed once an AI model has been trained. The geographic location of these data centers becomes critical, particularly because inference needs to be executed quickly.

Currently, Groq boasts over 1.6 million developers who utilize its services. Developers can choose an AI model and specify a location for data processing. The addition of the Kamloops facility will enable users in Canada to access these options, alongside existing choices in the United States and the Middle East.

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