CoreWeave Inc.

, Cerebras Systems Inc. and telecommunications firm

BCE Inc.

will collaborate on one of Canada’s most powerful data centres in Saskatchewan, with a first phase expected to come online in the first half of next year.

The 300-megawatt data centre, to be located on the southern edge of the city of Regina, will be dedicated to

artificial-intelligence computing

, BCE said in a statement Monday. AI chipmaker Cerebras and hyperscaler CoreWeave have secured 160 and 140 megawatts, respectively, as tenants for the new facility. CoreWeave’s compute will be hosted on

Nvidia Corp.

graphics processing units.

The project has the potential to generate economic value of about $12 billion over time, according to BCE, which plans to invest $1.7 billion to build the facility’s four data centre halls.

The telecom company, based in the Montreal region, cut its free cash flow guidance for 2026, given the expense of the project. BCE now expects its free cash flow to be no more than $2.3 billion this year. Previously, it had forecast as much as $3.5 billion.

But the data centre will add to revenue growth and earnings power over the next few years, the company said. Chief executive Mirko Bibic said in an interview that the industry standard values compute hardware at about $35 million per megawatt, which would equal $10.5 billion for the Saskatchewan project.

Canada has been exploring ways to reduce its economic and security dependence on the United States since President Donald Trump imposed

tariffs

a year ago. “What we have done in our contracts is ensure that there is going to be a significant proportion of the compute that’s reserved for sovereign purposes, as that sovereign demand evolves,” Bibic said.

The company introduced its Bell AI Fabric division last year, aiming to provide computing power of some 500 megawatts over time. The 300 megawatts of the Saskatchewan data centre will now be added to that target. “That’s our guidance, and we now see line of sight to a total of 800 megawatts,” Bibic said.

Revenue from “AI-powered solutions” is expected to rise by $500 million, to $2 billion, by 2028, BCE said.

  • BCE’s data centre rollout moving faster than expected
  • BCE shares fall after soft earnings guidance for 2026

Bloomberg.com