OTTAWA--Citing strong demand, BCE's chief executive officer said Monday the company intends to quadruple capacity at a planned artificial-intelligence data center in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
CEO Mirko Bibic unveiled the expansion at an investment summit in Toronto, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney as he attempts to drum up foreign interest in shovel-ready projects covering energy, mining, manufacturing and power generation. Officials pointed to BCE's announcement as a sign that Carney's efforts to lure capital are bearing fruit.
The Montreal-based telecommunications provider said the total capital investment now associated with this expanded project could exceed 50 billion Canadian dollars ($36.05 billion). Construction is already underway. Economists at Royal Bank of Canada said the buildup of data centers has helped reverse five-straight quarters of declining business investment.
Bibic, at the event alongside Carney, said that "the demand signals" were strong, and he approached Saskatchewan officials about and adding capacity. "This reflects a significant stage in the most ambitious digital infrastructure project in Canada," the CEO said.
The project was unveiled this past March, with a capacity for 300 megawatts. With the expansion, that power total climbs to 1.2 gigawatts. One gigawatt is generally enough power to provide electricity to 750,000 homes.
In his remarks, Bibic said Carney is "setting the tone for the country," and making Canada more appetizing for foreign investors. The investment summit has attracted attendance from some of the world's biggest asset managers, with officials estimating the investors are responsible for about $100 trillion.
"You're bringing leading investors from around the world to see what Canada has on offer and what we can do. [With] the tone and the ambition like this, it's giving us the confidence to put billions of capital in our own country, which is what we ought to do."
Carney's office said the Canadian leader met Monday in Toronto with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake, the CEO of Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund Dilhan Pillay, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray, and the CEOs of both the Kuwaiti and Qatari sovereign-wealth funds.