Memorandum hands Canadian organizations more control over scaling sovereign AI capacity
Bell Canada and Cisco signed a memorandum of understanding on September 29 to provide sovereign AI infrastructure for Canadian customers.
The Canadian Press reported the agreement will make use of Cisco's AI, networking, security and infrastructure technologies, and that the partnership is intended to help Canadian organizations deploy, secure and manage AI infrastructure in Canada while giving customers more flexibility in how they access and scale sovereign AI capacity.
The Canadian Press described Cisco as a US technology company.
The same outlet reported that Bell signed a deal in June for Cohere to operate its large language models through Bell AI Fabric, with support from two other companies.
It also reported a February 2026 memorandum with SAP Canada to build a Canadian-isolated cloud alternative that combines Bell AI Fabric's network, compute and data centre footprint with SAP Sovereign Cloud.
BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said at Canada's first investment summit in Toronto on September 14 that Bell would quadruple its planned Saskatchewan data centre from 300 megawatts to 1.2 gigawatts, CBC News reported.
Bibic said construction at the Sherwood site, near Regina, includes structural frames for three buildings, foundations for a fourth and work on power and cooling infrastructure.
Global News reported that Prime Minister Mark Carney said the project is expected to bring in more than $50bn in capital investment and amounts to the largest capital investment in Saskatchewan's history.
Carney said, "It is the largest sovereign AI infrastructure network in Canada."
The Saskatchewan government said 300 megawatts will be sourced from the provincial grid, with phased development of up to 900 megawatts provided by Bell under the province's Bring Your Own Power principle, according to National Observer.
Construction is already under way on the $1.7bn facility, which Bell announced in March 2026 as Canada's largest purpose-built AI data centre.
Telus opened its first Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski, Quebec in September 2025.
The facility "sold out within months of launching," Telus said in a Form 6-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which also referred to demand for "sovereign AI infrastructure."
The filing put AI-enabling revenue at approximately $800m in 2025, against a target of circa $2bn in 2028 across Telus Digital and Telus Business Solutions.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada ran a call for proposals from January 15 to February 15 under its Enabling large-scale sovereign AI data centres initiative, seeking projects with planned capacity greater than 100 megawatts.
The federal government announced on May 11 that it and Telus were advancing work under that initiative on a proposed British Columbia project.
National Observer reported that a government document prepared last year for federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Canada had about 337 megawatts of AI data centre capacity, with projects accounting for more than 20 gigawatts under planning or development.
Two-thirds of Canadians reject government incentives for AI data centre construction, a Nanos Research poll found, and only nine percent said data centre investment should be the primary focus when weighed against protection of water and electricity supply.
MIT Technology Review reported on September 15 that risks to investors have grown as AI companies borrow to build more data centres, and that required annual revenues would reach roughly US$3.7tn by 2032 assuming a 10 percent return, a figure that frames the debate over Canada's own data centre investment opportunity.
