Bell Canada To Quadruple Capacity At Planned Saskatchewan Data Center Campus

Bell plans to expand its Saskatchewan AI data center campus by up to 900MW, with potential to reach 1.2GW. The project could attract more than $50 billion in total investment and will use natural gas power generation and closed-loop cooling that does not require municipal water. Development will be phased based on customer commitments.

"Canada's next generation of economic growth will be built on Canadian infrastructure,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO, BCE and Bell Canada. “By creating a path to 1.2GW of AI capacity in Saskatchewan, Bell AI Fabric will give governments, businesses, researchers and innovators the secure, sovereign foundation they need to deploy AI at scale and compete globally."

Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan, added: "This historic investment will create thousands of good jobs and new opportunities for Saskatchewan people. It will also strengthen Canadian data sovereignty by keeping Canadian data here at home, stored by a Canadian company and protected under Canadian rules. When it comes to data storage, keeping that home ice advantage means Canadians set the rules and remain in control."

The Saskatchewan campus is part of Bell’s wider AI expansion across Canada. The company previously announced plans for multiple AI data centers in British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario, including a 500MW hydro-powered build-out in BC. Bell also plans AI facilities with Groq and Queen’s University and has partnered with Hive’s Buzz AI cloud unit on a GPU cluster in Manitoba. Bell sold most of its Canadian data centers to Equinix in 2020 but retained key networking facilities. It also operates a US edge data center business following its acquisition of Ziply Fiber.