Bell Canada selected Groq as its inference infrastructure partner to support the development of sovereign AI
In sum – what you need to know:
Bell launches AI Fabric initiative – Bell Canada unveiled a major AI infrastructure project, starting with a 500 MW hydro-powered compute network across six data centers.
First sites go live in 2025 – A 7 MW Groq-powered facility in Kamloops will launch in June, followed by another in Merritt. Two 26 MW data centers in Kamloops will follow in 2026 and 2027.
Boosting sovereign AI capacity – Backed by clean energy and national scale, Bell AI Fabric supports Canada’s goal of sovereign, high-performance AI infrastructure for enterprises, researchers and government institutions.
Canadian telco Bell Canada unveiled Bell AI Fabric, an investment that aims to create the country’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) compute project. Bell AI Fabric will create a national network starting with a data center cluster in British Columbia that will aim to provide upwards of 500 MW of hydro-electric powered AI compute capacity across six facilities.
With this project, Bell will be in a position to support Canadian enterprises and governments across their full spectrum of AI needs, from strategy and applications development through infrastructure deployment.
“Bell’s AI Fabric will ensure that Canadian businesses, researchers and public institutions can access high-performance, sovereign and environmentally responsible AI computing services,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO at Bell Canada. “Through this investment, Bell is immediately bolstering Canada’s sovereign AI compute capacity, while laying the groundwork to continue growing our AI economy.”
Under this initiative, it is expected that the first of Bell’s AI Fabric facilities will come online next month in partnership with AI inference provider, Groq and the launch of their 7 MW AI inference facility in Kamloops, British Columbia. Additional AI facilities will come online by the end of 2026, including a 26 MW AI data center being built in partnership with Thompson Rivers University (TRU).
The operator noted that two other AI data centers with a combined capacity of more than 400 MW are also in advanced planning stages with stakeholders.
Bell AI Fabric includes:
-Two 7 MW AI facilities that will be live in 2025. The first will open in Kamloops in June 2025, and is powered by Groq’s LPUs, which are designed to accelerate artificial intelligence inference tasks, particularly for large language models (LLMs). The second facility will open in Merritt, British Columbia by the end of this year.
-Two additional 26 MW AI data centers in Kamloops. The first will open in 2026 at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and will be followed by a second 26 MW data center in 2027.
-Two AI data centers in advanced planning stages, which will be designed for high-density AI workloads, powered by clean hydroelectricity and with a total capacity of more than 400 MW.
The carrier also highlighted that rther facilities planned across the country will take advantage of Bell’s nationwide real estate assets and will further add to the capacity of Bell AI Fabric.
Diana Gibson, minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, Government of British Columbia, said: “British Columbia has a robust and rapidly growing AI sector, and the supercluster of data centers will drive innovation, create jobs, and further strengthen our province’s position as an emerging world-class AI hub.”
Bell Canada selected Groq as its inference infrastructure partner to support the development of sovereign AI in Canada, The telco noted that Groq’s advanced LPUs deliver faster inference performance than other processing units at significantly lower costs.
