Why TELUS Plans a Sovereign AI Factory Cluster in Canada

Canada is stepping up efforts to keep AI infrastructure within its own borders and TELUS is placing data centres at the core of that strategy.

The telco company is expanding plans for a sovereign AI infrastructure network in British Columbia, backed by the Government of Canada and property developer Westbank, as demand for domestic AI compute capacity continues to rise.

The three-site cluster will combine high-performance GPU infrastructure with renewable energy and district heating systems.

It forms part of the federal Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative, which focuses on building Canadian-owned AI infrastructure capable of supporting businesses, researchers and public institutions without moving sensitive data outside the country.

TELUS says the facilities will eventually scale beyond 150MW of capacity and support more than 60,000 NVIDIA GPUs across sites in Kamloops and Vancouver.

“We are incredibly proud to be working with the Government of Canada to help build Canada's sovereign AI infrastructure,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO of TELUS.

“The unprecedented demand that completely sold out our first AI Factory in Rimouski proves that Canadian innovators want cutting-edge AI built right here on Canadian soil.

“Following this modular, demand-driven approach, we are developing our B.C. sovereign AI cluster as a direct response to that market demand.

“This will serve a rapidly growing ecosystem of Canadian businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, researchers, public institutions and government organizations that require world-class AI compute without sending their data, intellectual property and competitive advantage outside Canadian borders.”

Darren added that the project will bring US$9bn into the Canadian economy, with facilities running on 98% clean energy.

The remaining waste heat will be used for heating 150,000 homes in metro Vancouver.

Data centres anchor Canada's AI strategy

The expansion follows the opening of TELUS’ first Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski, Quebec, in September 2025.

TELUS describes the facility as Canada’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer on the TOP500 global ranking, which lists the 500 most powerful commercially available supercomputers known to researchers.

The company says capacity at the site is fully sold out.

They are now scaling infrastructure in British Columbia using an initial 85MW of renewable power secured through BC Hydro.

The Kamloops AI Factory is scheduled to come online later this year, while the M3 facility in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district opens at the end of 2026 and expands through 2028. A third site at 150 West Georgia follows in 2029.

At full scale, the sites support large-scale AI model training, simulations and production deployment workloads using NVIDIA accelerated computing platforms.

“Securing Canada's technological independence is a national priority, and it requires building the infrastructure to back it up,” said The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.

“By working with TELUS, we are taking concrete action to strengthen Canada's sovereign AI capacity and ensure that Canadian innovation, data fand economic advantages are anchored in Canada. This is how Canada competes in the AI-driven economy.”

TELUS positions the project around sovereign infrastructure principles, with systems owned and operated entirely within Canada.

The platform supports the full AI lifecycle, from training and fine-tuning through to inference and deployment.

As part of the rollout, and as the first North American service provider to gain official NVIDIA Cloud Partner status, TELUS plans to deploy NVIDIA Vera Rubin and NVIDIA Grace Blackwell systems.

These will be connected through NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking.

“TELUS has proven over the past year that sovereign AI infrastructure built on trusted telecom platforms delivers real results; in fact, AI-native companies are already training, deploying and scaling on TELUS' NVIDIA-powered platform,” said Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President, Telecom, at NVIDIA.

“This next phase of growth validates how trusted telcos like TELUS become the infrastructure layer of a nation's economic future.”

Sustainability shapes facility design

Alongside compute capacity, the project places heavy emphasis on energy efficiency and heat reuse within urban environments.

The Vancouver facilities are designed to connect into district energy systems including the City of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility and Creative Energy’s downtown network.

TELUS says the infrastructure supports the decarbonisation of more than 50m sq ft of real estate.

The company also claims its closed-loop liquid cooling system cuts cooling energy consumption by 80% compared with conventional data centres while reducing water use by 90%.

The wider economic impact also forms part of the programme.

TELUS says the cluster will create more than 1,000 construction jobs alongside operational roles tied to AI infrastructure management.

The facilities also strengthen Vancouver's role as a connectivity hub linking North America with Asia-Pacific markets through low-latency network routes.