Canada is making a massive push to build its own AI infrastructure — and investors will probably want to take notice.
In this five-minute video, Motley Fool Canada CIO Iain Butler breaks down the federal government’s $9 billion AI data centre cluster in British Columbia and shares three Canadian companies he’s watching to capitalize on this sovereign AI theme: Celestica (TSX: CLS), Telus (TSX: T), and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN).
Prefer to read? There’s a transcript below.
Nick Sciple: I’m Motley Fool Canada Senior Analyst Nick Sciple, and this is the 5-Minute Major, here to make you a smarter investor in about 5 minutes.
Today, we’re discussing Canada’s push to build its own sovereign AI infrastructure, including this week’s Telus and federal government announcement of a $9 billion AI data centre cluster in British Columbia. My guest today is Motley Fool Canada Chief Investment Officer Iain Butler. Iain, thank you for joining me once again.
Iain Butler: Pleasure to be here, as always, Nick.
Nick: So, as I alluded in the intro, on Monday, Telus and the Canadian federal government announced plans for a sovereign AI data centre cluster across three British Columbia sites, scaling to 60,000 GPUs and 150 megawatts by 2032. Iain, set the scene for us. What is sovereign AI, and why is Ottawa pushing so hard right now to scale it up?
What is ‘sovereign AI’ in Canada?
Iain: The headlines we see out of the U.S. are, “all AI all the time,” and so it’s kind of nice to see Canada getting into the game to a certain point, but sovereign AI means essentially, Canadian data, Canadian compute and Canadian rules. It’s driven by data protection concerns and over-reliance on foreign hyperscalers — the U.S. companies that I was just referring to. And Ottawa wants critical workloads under Canadian law. So there was a federal call for proposals earlier this year that required Canadian ownership, data residency, and a Canadian supply chain, and I think we’re seeing that with this week’s announcement.
We’re talking real money here. The federal commitment suggests just how serious the government is about this. Budget 2025 put just over $900 million over 5 years towards sovereign large-scale AI compute, and that was on top of a $2 billion commitment announced in Budget 2024.
And then this just announced Telus deal alone represents $9 billion of stated investment, and that’s on top of a separate Celestica-Bell sovereign AI partnership that was announced in April.
So the wheels are in motion, for sure, north of the border on the AI data centre front.
Nick: Lots of money flowing into AI, and some of it has a maple syrup flavor. Iain, you’re the Chief Investment Officer for Motley Fool Canada. Anywhere that’s on your shortlist of, looking to put money to work in this theme, what are some companies on your radar around Canadian sovereign AI?
Iain: Three come to mind, and we’ve actually referred to or mentioned all three in that opening bit.
Celestica: The hardware stock
So, the first one, the hardware partner for Bell’s sovereign AI infrastructure is Celestica.
And many might remember Celestica from its sort of heyday back in the dot-com boom. It’s had a real resurrection. The stock has done tremendously well. So Celestica contributes rack integration, AI server manufacturing, and full-stack hardware design.
And results are showing that it’s well into the game. First-quarter revenue is up 53% year-over-year. Its full-year revenue outlook raised to US$19 billion, and its adjusted EPS guidance is up over $10 a share. So, Celestica would be considered a direct hardware play.
Telus: An under-the-radar AI investment
Telus, again mentioned earlier, is on the operator side of this situation. So back in September, Telus opened its first AI factory in Rimouski, Quebec, and it is already entirely sold out. This week’s announcement for a three-site BC cluster comes online in stages from late 2026 through 2029.
I think what’s really interesting here is that anyone you talk to about Telus, all they care about is dividend sustainability, and that’s a topic for another time. But there’s a lot more to this story as it involves AI infrastructure optionality that I don’t think the market has priced in at all. It’s totally ignoring.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners: The money play
And finally, we can put forward Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and really the whole Brookfield empire is all over this theme. So Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN) on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It’s really a picks-and-shovels capital allocator. BIP is already the owner of one of the largest global data centre platforms and is well-positioned to fund and own the infrastructure across both sides of the border.
Nick: Yeah, so there’s an opportunity in hardware, in the operations side of the deal, and as a capital provider through Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. We’re in one of the most significant capex build-outs we’ve seen since the dot-com build-out in the late ’90s, and lots of opportunities across the world and Canada, not least of which. Alright, folks.
That’s all the time we have for this edition of the 5-Minute Major. As a reminder, if you want more stock ideas from us, you can click on the icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Hope you enjoyed this video, and we’ll see you next time. Fool on.
