Bell is investing $1.7 billion to build what it says will be Canada’s largest purpose-built artificial intelligence data centre, as demand for AI computing infrastructure accelerates. BNN Bloomberg spoke with Mirko Bibic, CEO of BCE, about the Regina-based project, the company’s broader AI strategy and what the investment means for economic growth and investors.
Key Takeaways
- BCE plans to invest $1.7 billion to build a purpose-built AI data centre in Regina, expected to be the largest of its kind in Canada.
- The facility will have 300 megawatts of power capacity and will host AI computing infrastructure operated by CoreWeave and Cerebras.
- Total economic investment tied to the project could approach $12 billion when including tenant computing hardware.
- Construction is expected to support about 800 jobs, with roughly 80 permanent operational roles once the facility is complete.
- The project is part of BCE’s broader strategy to expand AI-driven enterprise services and increase growth targets outlined at its investor day.
Read the full transcript below:
LINDSAY: And we are joined now by the CEO of BCE, Mirko Bibic, to talk about the company’s latest AI initiatives, including a major new investment in Saskatchewan and what investors can expect going forward. Mirko, thanks for being here this morning.
MIRKO: Thank you for having me, Lindsay. How are you?
LINDSAY: I’m good, thank you. This is a really big announcement today for Bell. If we’re talking about this AI data centre being built in Saskatchewan, it would be the largest purpose-built AI data centre anywhere in Canada. Why Saskatchewan?
MIRKO: Well, we’ve had tremendous discussions with the Saskatchewan government. It’s essentially a partnership where we’ve come together. Saskatchewan wants to be at the epicentre of AI industrialization in Canada. When we started talking about the Bell AI Fabric vision that we have, we had a meeting of the minds where Saskatchewan is coming forward with 300 megawatts of power allocation, and the Crown corporations — whether it’s SaskTel bringing fibre to the site and interconnecting that fibre to their national backbone, or SaskPower — we’ve had really interesting discussions that led to an MOU. Here we are. We’re going to have the largest purpose-built AI data centre in the country right here in Regina. That’s where I am talking to you from right now. We’re going to have a media event and an announcement with the premier later today. They really want to grow the economy, modernize their economy and generate more GDP.
LINDSAY: Can you break down the price tag a little more? How much is this going to cost, and how much funding, if any, is the Saskatchewan government investing in this new data centre?
MIRKO: Yes. There’s no public money allocated to this, so the Saskatchewan government is not directing any public funds to this deployment. Bell is going to invest $1.7 billion to build the purpose-built data centre. Think about it as four data halls that are going to be brought online by the end of next year, with two major global AI leaders as our core tenants for this facility. Those tenants — CoreWeave and Cerebras — will be bringing in the compute hardware to run the AI workloads in the data centre. If you take the $1.7 billion of direct Bell investment and consider the compute hardware the two tenants will bring, we’re talking essentially close to $12 billion of direct investment right here in the province.
LINDSAY: What will these centres be supporting? When you hear AI data centres, they can support a number of different things. This centre in particular — what will it be supporting?
MIRKO: This data centre is fully allocated. The 300 megawatts have already been allocated to the two customers, Cerebras and CoreWeave. They’ll be using that capacity to meet the demands of their own customers and off-takers. At the same time, we made sure to reserve a significant amount of compute capacity to meet sovereign AI demand in Canada for Bell clients.
LINDSAY: Obviously, some concerns for local residents when they hear a data centre is going into their communities — electricity costs and those electricity costs rising. Where will the electricity really come from for this data centre, and will residents within Regina be paying the price?
MIRKO: We’re very mindful of the community around us. First of all, this is going to create a lot of economic activity in Regina and the surrounding area. That’s phenomenal, and we want to prioritize local procurement wherever possible. We’ll be plugging into the industrial energy grid here, not the residential grid. That’s important. There have also been questions around water use. This data centre will not draw on local water sources at all. It uses technical water in a closed-loop cooling system. There is also waste heat generated by AI data centres, and we’re looking at developing a district energy grid that can redirect that waste heat to create alternative energy sources.
LINDSAY: I was going to ask about water and waste heat, so we got that knocked off. But when you talk about being plugged into the industrial electrical system, does that mean local businesses would be paying the price?
MIRKO: No, not at all. This is power allocation that SaskPower already has available for uses like this. And this project is going to create a significant amount of economic activity, both direct and indirect. Regina is going to be one of the epicentres of AI industrialization in Canada, which is fantastic news.
LINDSAY: Let’s talk about jobs now, because Bell says construction alone is expected to support at least 800 positions. Operations would involve about 80 full-time roles once the facility is operational. So when it comes to permanent jobs moving forward, is that roughly the 80 jobs?
MIRKO: Yes. Across Bell, Cerebras and CoreWeave, we’re looking at at least 80 permanent jobs at the facility to run operations.And of course, this is a big development — $1.7 billion in direct investment by BCE over 2026 and 2027 — so a significant number of construction jobs will also be created.
LINDSAY: You also say, based on industry research, as many as 750 additional community jobs could result from a large data centre. I’m reading that from the press release. What kind of jobs are you talking about there?
MIRKO: When you have the ability to plug into AI data centres like this and run AI workloads in a facility of this scale, there are a number of knock-on economic benefits that come from that activity in a region. Economic studies show that when you build AI data centres, the economic benefits can continue for years through supplier networks, services and related industries.
LINDSAY: Let’s talk a little more about Bell as a whole before we wrap up. For investors who are listening, since the start of 2026 the stock price has been rising. What has your company been doing to generate that growth so far this year?
MIRKO: We started last year by strengthening the balance sheet and optimizing the cost of capital. Then at investor day in October we outlined a clear strategic plan based on four key growth areas, all tightly linked together and built on our core strengths. It’s about executing against a forward-looking strategy with ambition. We’ve built a lot of momentum. One of our key strategic priorities is leading the enterprise market with AI-powered solutions, and that growth vector has significant momentum. This announcement today is one of the key elements supporting that growth strategy. We laid out financial targets for the next three years last October, and with today’s announcement we are increasing those targets.
LINDSAY: Just before we wrap up, for investors, are there any headwinds the company is facing in the year ahead — challenges investors should be watching?
MIRKO: We factored potential headwinds into the targets we set at investor day last October. Those expectations were already reflected in our outlook. Today’s announcement around the AI data centre in Saskatchewan allows us to increase those growth targets. We indicated on an analyst call today that we are not changing the guidance targets for the underlying business otherwise.
LINDSAY: We’ll leave it there. Mirko Bibic, CEO of BCE. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
MIRKO: Thank you, Lindsay.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the March 16, 2026 interview with Mirko Bibic are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
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