Big Tech joins Calgary Stampede as Canada court data centers

Big Tech has joined in the Calgary Stampede party, showing a?growing? interest from hyperscalers based in the United States as Alberta pursues data center development.

The annual energy gathering, which coincides with the famous city rodeo, is usually dominated by oil and gas companies. This year, U.S. tech giants are also a prominent corporate presence, according to attendees.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has been the most visible sponsoring Stampede this year for the second consecutive year. The company held a private party on Sunday at Corona Skydeck, a rooftop patio with sweeping views of the Stampede grounds. It could accommodate 300 guests.

According to a reliable source, the party included politicians from both federal and provincial governments, as well as government employees.

Google's spokesperson confirmed that this year, the Calgary Stampede will be the biggest ever for the company.

Two sources have confirmed that other tech companies, such as Meta and Amazon, also attended events and meetings held at Stampede. Both companies did not respond to a comment request.

Meta announced on Wednesday that it would build a massive 1 gigawatt data center in central Alberta. This will be the first Canadian data centre for the company. Meta is rapidly expanding computing capacity in order to support the global AI explosion. Meta announced that the 1-gigawatt facility will be located in Sturgeon County, and represent a total investment amounting to C$13 billion or $9.17billion.

Alberta is promoting its cheap and plentiful natural gas as a way to attract C$100 Billion in data center investments. The province's cold climate and affordable power could be attractive to U.S. hyperscalers who are facing power shortages in their home country.

Nate Glubish is the technology minister for Alberta. He has previously stated that the province is in discussions with a number of tech companies who are'searching for jurisdictions that can quickly connect them to the grid.

Alberta also offers proponents the opportunity to build their own power sources in order to avoid limitations on?power capability.

Although the province has not yet built any hyperscale data centers (requiring 50 megawatts of power or more), nearly 100 have been planned and at least one will be constructed. (Reporting and editing by Caroline Stauffer in Calgary, David Gaffen, and Amanda Stephenson)

(source: Reuters)