By Amanda Stephenson <\/p>\n
CALGARY, July 8 (Reuters) – Big Tech has joined the party at the Calgary Stampede, a sign of growing interest in Canada from U.S.-based hyperscalers as the \u200cprovince of Alberta courts data center development. <\/p>\n
Oil and gas companies typically take center stage \u200cat the annual energy get-together, timed with the city’s famous rodeo. But this year, U.S.-based tech giants have a noticeable \u200bcorporate presence as well, according to sources attending the parties. <\/p>\n
Alphabet’s Google has been the most highly visible, helping sponsor Stampede for the second year in a row. The company hosted a private party Sunday at the Corona Skydeck, an exclusive rooftop patio overlooking the Stampede rodeo grounds, with enough capacity for 300 \u200cguests. <\/p>\n
The party was attended by \u2060federal and provincial politicians and government staff, among other guests, according to a Reuters source. <\/p>\n
A Google spokeswoman confirmed that the company has the largest presence it \u2060has ever had at the Calgary Stampede this year. <\/p>\n
Two sources said other tech firms, including Meta and Amazon, have also been attending events and meetings at Stampede. Neither company responded to a request for comment. <\/p>\n
Alberta \u200bwants to \u200battract C$100 billion in data center investment, touting its \u200bcheap and abundant natural gas supply. \u200cAffordable power, combined with the province’s cold climate, could make it an attractive jurisdiction to U.S. hyperscalers facing power constraints and growing community opposition in their own country. <\/p>\n
The Alberta government said it plans to announce a “major investment” in the province’s technology and artificial intelligence sector on Wednesday. No additional details were provided, but Nate Glubish, the province’s technology minister, previously told Reuters that Alberta is in \u200ctalks with multiple tech companies that are searching for \u200bjurisdictions where they can connect to the grid quickly. <\/p>\n
Alberta is \u200balso offering proponents the option to build \u200btheir own power sources to avoid limits on power capacity. <\/p>\n
While the province does \u200cnot yet have any data centers at \u200bthe so-called hyperscale level (demanding \u200b50 megawatts or more of power), almost 100 have been proposed and at least one large-scale one is set for construction. <\/p>\n
Last week, Pembina Pipeline said it will go ahead with \u200bits planned C$4.6 billion ($3.24 billion) Greenlight \u200cElectricity Centre in central Alberta, a 932-megawatt natural gas-fired project that will power the \u200bdevelopment of a major data center for an undisclosed customer. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in \u200bCalgary; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and David Gaffen) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Amanda Stephenson CALGARY, July 8 (Reuters) – Big Tech has joined the party at the Calgary Stampede,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[10847,49,2798,202360,48,14372,278451,278452,7566],"class_list":["post-788103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-big-tech","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-stampede","tag-canada","tag-data-center","tag-power-sources","tag-stampede-rodeo-grounds","tag-tech-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}