{"id":952239,"date":"2026-10-30T19:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952239\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T19:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:16:09","slug":"anthropic-in-talks-to-lease-massive-data-centre-campus-outside-edmonton-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/952239\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic in talks to lease massive data centre campus outside Edmonton, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/7ABMU2BIB5BN7EOIAM5HBVQDBQ.JPG?auth=14b8ce028ad6bfbc250613f6d6a0abb91db0568ae589911c8c03e3196419bd54&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">People visit an Anthropic booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology summit in San Francisco, Calif., last month. Compute capacity at the proposed Alberta site would support Anthropic\u2019s AI tool, Claude.Carlos Barria\/Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Anthropic is in talks to lease a hyperscale data centre campus northeast of Edmonton, according to sources. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The AI giant is negotiating with developer Calgary-based Beacon Data Centers Inc. to be the tenant of a proposed project located in Sturgeon County in Alberta\u2019s industrial heartland, two sources said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources, who weren\u2019t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">San Francisco-based Anthropic and Beacon declined requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The site will include four data halls intended to contain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/topics\/artificial-intelligence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">artificial-intelligence<\/a> and high-performance computing facilities, according to documents Beacon submitted to Alberta\u2019s Utilities Commission on July 17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">It will be powered by a 920-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant. The AUC approved the power plant proposal on Oct. 23. Construction of the power plant is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the decision <a href=\"https:\/\/prd-spwfe-ext-efiling20.auc.ab.ca\/sites\/P016\/PublicDocs_30518\/30518_X%5B%5D_Decision%2030518-D01-2026%20-%20Beacon%20AI%20Centers%20-%20Heartland%20Project%20Thermal%20Power%20Plant_000334.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published by the AUC<\/a>, with an in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/commentary\/article-canada-ai-compute-power-access-data-centres\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Opinion: Canada won the AI talent race, but we\u2019re losing the infrastructure one<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The Beacon campus would have about double the power capacity of a data centre Anthropic announced earlier this month to be built in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Halifax-based EverWind Fuels said on Oct. 16 that Anthropic signed a 20-year lease for a 18,600-square metre facility in Point Tupper, N.S., for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-anthropic-signs-onto-10-billion-nova-scotia-data-centre-project\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-anthropic-signs-onto-10-billion-nova-scotia-data-centre-project\/\">initial phase of the campus<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">According to EverWind, the project would be built in two phases, with the first phase set to draw 95 MW of electricity, with a start-up date in late 2027. A second, 325-MW phase would begin operations in 2028, for a total of 420 megawatts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Compute capacity at the site would support Anthropic\u2019s AI tool, Claude, according to a statement from the company. It said Canada currently ranks sixth worldwide in Claude.ai use out of 121 countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The EverWind campus is estimated to cost $10-billion and represent the largest private investment in Nova Scotia history. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-ai-company-ipos-explainer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Explainer: As Anthropic files for its blockbuster IPO, a look at the biggest AI players tapping public markets<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Aside from the Nova Scotia and Sturgeon County, Alta., projects, it\u2019s not clear if Anthropic is pursuing other data-centre locations in Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Anthropic spent more than US$7-billion \u200bon \u2060computing and infrastructure last year, or three times as much as it did in 2024. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Anthropic\u2019s highly anticipated debut on the New York Stock exchange would comprise one of the biggest IPOs in corporate history, and is expected to happen during the week of Nov. 16. It is aiming for a valuation between US$1.5-trillion and US$2-trillion. The company has committed to spending between US$525-billion and US$567-billion on future compute and infrastructure, according to its filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: People visit an Anthropic booth at Moscone Center during the Dreamforce 2026 technology&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,6347,61],"class_list":["post-952239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ne-i","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952239","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=952239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}