Bell spends $50 billion to quadruple AI data centre in Saskatchewan

BCE Inc. is spending $50 billion to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) data centre near Regina, the company announced at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto on Monday. In March, the telecom revealed it was building a 300 megawatt (MW) facility outside the provincial capital. Yesterday’s announcement will see the capacity balloon to 1.2 gigawatts (GW). “Bell Canada at its core for 146 years has been building the critical communications and technology infrastructure that this country has needed and we’re extremely proud to be making this investment and to take it to the next level for years to come with critical sovereign data infrastructure and AI compute capacity,” BCE CEO Mirko Bibic told the crowd at the summit. The chief executive revealed the company will work with local firms including Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (SaskTel), SaskPower and TransGas. Bibic appeared with Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe at the ceremony. The premier said the $50 billion project was definitely the largest in the province’s history and speculated that it was the largest in Canadian history. “It’s been a great day,” Moe asserted. “Talking about Saskatchewan and Canada and the opportunity that we have, the strength that we have as a nation but I think also the opportunities that we have to work together in the future.” The summit brought together investors from around the world. The premier was delighted by the Canadian content of the outlay. “To have it be made by a Canadian company is even more special,” he boasted. All the speakers, including Carney, referenced the tone of talks at the summit. “The tone of Canadians is let’s get on with it, let’s build, let’s control our future, let’s be positive, let’s come together,” the prime minister stated. “This is a fantastic example of that.” Bibic told a later news conference that the current construction has created about 500 jobs. The expansion should double that to 1,000. By the time the data centre is completed, around 600 permanent positions should be in place. There should also be thousands of spin-off jobs, he added. The Bell executive praised the federal government’s new AI data centre principles introduced earlier this month by AI Minister Evan Solomon (Toronto Centre, Ont.). He said the new centre will serve as an anchor campus that will use Saskatchewan as the hub for a national ecosystem. Market reaction was positive to the news. “We think the directional message matters more than the headline number; the Bell AI Fabric ceiling continues to rise,” Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord Genuity wrote in a note. “Amid continued pressure in core Canadian telecom, we believe Bell AI Fabric remains a credible source of incremental growth and value.” Adam Shine of National Bank heralded the internal rate of return (IRR) promised by the development. “Bell noted on a call arranged after the news came out that it’s targeting a similar level of IRR for future projects in the province,” he wrote. Premier Moe used the analogy of building the railway in the 19th century to discuss the Bell-Saskatchewan memorandum of understanding. “Today, the infrastructure has changed but the purpose has not,” he opined. “That same nation-building purpose calls for a new kind of infrastructure, infrastructure that protects our data and secures our sovereignty.” ppark@thewirereport.ca

Bell spends $50 billion to quadruple AI data centre in Saskatchewan

Telecom |
By Paul Park
|September 15, 2026

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Bell spends $50 billion to quadruple AI data centre in Saskatchewan

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