Canadian telecoms operator Bell Canada has revealed plans to establish six AI data centres in British Columbia as part of its Bell AI Fabric initiative.
Bell AI Fabric initiative is aimed at creating the country’s largest AI compute project.
The Bell AI Fabric will begin with a data centre supercluster in British Columbia, targeting over 500MW of hydroelectric-powered AI compute capacity across the six facilities.
The first facility, a 7MW AI inference centre in Kamloops, will open in June 2025 in partnership with Groq, an AI inference provider.
This will be followed by a second 7MW facility in Merritt by the end of 2025.
Both centres will utilise Groq’s Language Processing Units (LPUs), designed to enhance AI inference tasks for large language models at lower costs per token compared to existing alternatives, the company said.
Groq CEO and founder Jonathan Ross said: "Groq's advanced LPU technology, combined with Bell's extensive fibre infrastructure, is setting a new standard in AI inference. We're excited to bring these capabilities to Canada, significantly enhancing performance and affordability for AI-driven applications."
Two additional 26 MW AI data centres are planned for Kamloops. The first, set to launch in 2026 at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), will facilitate AI training and inference, providing access to advanced compute resources for students and faculty through integration with the BCNET network. Waste heat from this facility will be repurposed into TRU’s district energy system.
A second 26MW data centre is scheduled for 2027.
Two further AI data centres, with a combined capacity exceeding 400 MW and designed for high-density AI workloads, are in advanced planning stages, the company added.
Bell Canada BCE president and CEO Mirko Bibic said: "Bell's AI Fabric will ensure that Canadian businesses, researchers, and public institutions can access high-performance, sovereign and environmentally responsible AI computing services.
“Through this investment, Bell is immediately bolstering Canada's sovereign AI compute capacity, while laying the groundwork to continue growing our AI economy. This is transformational for our customers, for Canada and for Bell."
"Bell Canada to establish six AI data centres in British Columbia" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.
