Why Alberta is attracting possible massive AI data centres
Alberta is quickly emerging as a top destination for tech companies to build massive artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, but what makes the province so attractive?
According to Alberta’s minister of technology and innovation, Nate Glubish, Alberta has many eye-catching qualities when it comes to building these centres.
“The single biggest bottleneck for any data centre developer is access to electricity at scale, and Alberta has it,” Glubish said when speaking with Daily Hive.
In addition to abundant electricity, Alberta’s cold climate helps reduce the energy needed to cool servers. The province also provides a low-tax environment that it says is attractive to businesses, making Alberta an upcoming hot spot for AI data centres and technology investments.
The Province has been working on drawing in companies to build new AI data centres, setting up a concierge program that gives developers one main contact, a dedicated project manager and access to all the right regulators.
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According to Major Projects Alberta, several AI data centres are being proposed for the province in the coming years, including a flurry of them between Calgary and Edmonton. Some of these projects are expected to cost billions of dollars and be built in phases over several years.
“The long-term vision is for Alberta to be the epicentre of Canada’s AI compute infrastructure. We’re finalizing a formal policy framework that will give any project proponent clear, objective criteria so they know exactly what it takes to build here, and how fast they can do it.”
Glubish says that the Province has a clear strategy to attract AI data centre investment. “Our goal is to attract up to $100 billion in data centre and related infrastructure investment over the next five years.”
He also noted that these projects could create thousands of high-paying construction jobs and bring in new revenue from corporate taxes and natural gas royalties that help fund healthcare and education within the province.
While most of the projects are still in the proposal stage, planning is underway, and companies are aiming to build the first centres in the near future.