Demand for data center capacity in Canada is accelerating BCE’s efforts in new artificial intelligence businesses, and construction of new facilities is ahead of schedule, a top company executive said.
The company, Canada’s largest telecommunications company by revenue, introduced its Bell AI Fabric division last year. The division aims to provide computing power powered by 73 megawatts, enough to power more than 30,000 homes.
BCE has partners to build its data centers, including Groq Inc. and Hive Digital Technologies Ltd, which account for the bulk of the investment and manage the servers. BCE has committed to investing C$300 million ($216 million), and the business is expected to generate revenues of approximately C$400 million by 2028.
“AI Fabric’s growth from our strong start in May 2025 has been faster than I expected,” BCE CEO Mirko Bibic said in an interview in Montreal.
The first data center opened in Kamloops, British Columbia, in June, and another is expected to be operational by March in nearby Merritt. Other facilities are expected to start operating later this year.
The company currently has no plans to invest beyond what it has already announced, Bibic said. “If it grows faster, we’ll address it. That would be a great problem, but right now we’re holding back about C$300 million in capital spending,” he said.
Amid global concerns about data sovereignty, Canada could be seen as a “very attractive and neutral site to host data,” Bibic added. “In that respect, I think Bell AI Fabric can have a significant advantage in doing business in Canada.”
Bell AI Fabric has partnered with Canadian tech unicorn Cohere Inc. to use Cohere’s generative AI models.
As part of its AI push, BCE merged previous acquisitions with IT consulting firm Ateko and launched Bell Cyber, a service that leverages AI to detect and contain cyber threats.
BCE said in an investor presentation in October that its goal is to generate approximately C$1.5 billion in revenue from AI-powered solutions by 2028. bloomberg
