Canadian telecoms operator Bell Canada has launched ‘Bell AI Fabric,’ a plan to help build AI data centers across the country.

The new initiative plans to be ‘nationwide,’ but will start with six data centers in British Columbia, supported by 500MW of hydroelectric power.

The very first facility is set to come online this June, operated by AI inference provider and chip designer Groq. That data center will be a 7MW facility in Kamloops, BC. Another 7MW data center will open in Merritt, BC by the end of this year.

Two 26MW data centers at planned for Kamloops, with the first opening later this year at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and a second coming next year.

Two other AI data centers with a combined capacity of more than 400MW are also in “advanced planning stages” with stakeholders.

“Bell’s AI Fabric will ensure that Canadian businesses, researchers, and public institutions can access high-performance, sovereign and environmentally responsible AI computing services,” Mirko Bibic, president and CEO, BCE and Bell Canada, said.

“Through this investment, Bell is immediately bolstering Canada’s sovereign AI compute capacity, while laying the groundwork to continue growing our AI economy. This is transformational for our customers, for Canada and for Bell.”