Meta has announced plans to build its first Canadian data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, representing an investment of more than $13 billion — one of the largest private-sector investments in Canadian history. The project is expected to create more than 3,000 construction jobs, support 300 operational positions, and generate approximately $250 million annually in benefits for Albertans through royalties, taxes, levies, and fees.

The data centre will be located within Alberta's Industrial Heartland and will operate under the province's "bring your own power" approach, combining grid-connected electricity with new on-site natural gas generation. Meta's Sturgeon Data Centre will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling that requires no operational water use, with water use limited to domestic purposes, fire protection, and equipment maintenance.

"Sturgeon County is the perfect home for Meta for several reasons, including its strong access to infrastructure and energy, talented workforce, and outstanding community partners," said Gary Demasi, vice-president of data centre strategy and development at Meta.

Alberta has framed the announcement as a direct result of the regulatory environment it built before opening the door to AI investment — requiring large data centres to bring their own power, fund supporting infrastructure, and meet strict environmental requirements. In addition to the Meta investment, a $4.6 billion natural gas generation facility announced by Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and Kineticor is expected to reduce transmission costs on Albertans' electricity bills by up to six per cent.

The following day, the Alberta government revealed a separate $50 million investment over five years in the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, or Amii — one of Canada's three national AI institutes and a global centre for research in reinforcement learning. The funding, spread across five provincial ministries, is designed to accelerate AI adoption across public services and industry, support startups, and build AI literacy across the province's workforce.

"This investment enables Amii to strengthen the foundations of Alberta's AI ecosystem by supporting startups, accelerating AI adoption across industry and the public sector, and building the AI literacy needed to prepare the workforce of the future," said Cam Linke, CEO of Amii.

Alberta has invested approximately $100 million in Amii since 2002. The institute sustains more than 500 active researchers and counts Richard Sutton — co-recipient of the 2024 Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing — as its chief scientific adviser.