Did you know that many Canadian companies are involved in building AI infrastructure?
From data centre companies to semiconductor component makers, Canadian firms are involved in every step of the process.
In this article, I will explore two companies that are involved in building Canada’s AI infrastructure and will continue being involved for the foreseeable future.
Source: Getty Images
Brookfield
Brookfield Corp (TSX: BN) and its partially-owned infrastructure and renewables subsidiaries are deeply involved in Canada’s AI buildout. These subsidiaries are Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (TSX: BIP.UN) and Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSX: BEP.UN). Brookfield is actively involved in AI data centre construction, mainly through Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, which actively owns Canadian data centres. The company owns data centres in Toronto and Montreal, through its platforms Cascade Data Centres and C3. For the most part, BIP.UN’s data centres are not “hyper-scale” ones, the kinds that are usually associated with AI. However, Brookfield has another subsidiary involved in that part of the data centre world, too.
Brookfield Renewable Partners is a leading supplier of renewable power to hyperscale data centres in the United States. These include Microsoft and Alphabet. The company has already signed major deals to provide these companies with billions of dollars worth of renewable power every year. And now, with Meta Platforms set to build a hyper-scale data centre in Canada, Brookfield Renewable is perfectly positioned to power it. So, the opportunity set for Brookfield here is absolutely massive.
Cameco
Cameco (TSX: CCO) is a Canadian nuclear company that mines uranium ore and turns it into nuclear fuel. Like Brookfield Renewable, it is involved in supplying power to hyperscale data centres. It owns about half of Westinghouse, alongside Brookfield. Westinghouse is a company that supplies parts for nuclear power plants, and also builds nuclear power plants. It (via Bruce Flatt) entered discussions with the Trump administration to build eight nuclear power plants for the U.S.’s data centres. Not much has come from that discussion yet, but in the meantime, Cameco is already supplying nuclear fuel to nuclear power plants that power data centres.
It stands to reason that this company could benefit from Canada’s own data centre buildout.
Data centres are known to put pressure on local electric grids where they are built. As a result, there is some discussion of powering them with on-site power sources such as modular nuclear reactors. Should Canada pursue such routes in its data centre buildout, then there will be opportunities for Cameco to profit.
The thesis for Cameco profiting off of Canada’s data centre buildout is a little more speculative than that for Brookfield Renewable. There’s no guarantee that Canada is going to be rolling out countless nuclear energy facilities to fuel its data centre expansion. But if it does – and the U.S. and China both appear to be going that route – then Cameco will profit.
The bottom line
The bottom line on Canada’s data centre buildout is that it is very much a Canadian phenomenon. While multi-billion-dollar investments from Meta Platforms grab headlines, Canadian companies will be involved in the process of building these facilities. So, there are real investment opportunities here.
