The project pipeline
13 / 18
More than two-thirds of the tracked projects are not operating. Seven are being built, five are proposals, and one is under review.
18 tracked builds · July 2026
A boom on paper.
A fraction in service.
Every point is tagged by status. Select a project to separate operating capacity from the proposal layer.
5operating
7under construction
5proposed
1under review
Operating
Under construction
Proposed
Under review
The credibility gap
Count buildings.
Not headlines.
A proposed gigawatt is not an operating megawatt. The map’s most important distinction is status - not scale.
Where the boom sits
9
Half of all tracked projects are in Alberta. The province contains both the largest proposal and the largest build under construction.
Operating metros
3
Real capacity is concentrated around Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary.
Largest proposal
7.5
GW at Wonder Valley - more than twenty times a federal estimate of Canada’s current AI data-centre capacity.
Alberta queue
21
GW requested against an interim connection allowance of roughly 1.2 GW through 2028.
FEDERAL ESTIMATE · CURRENT AI CAPACITY337 MWenergized capacity, national estimate
DO NOT ADD THESE
PIPELINE · PLANNING OR DEVELOPMENT20+ GWproposals and projects at mixed stages
STATUS IS A MEASUREMENT. “ANNOUNCED” IS NOT “OPERATING.”
What keeps the racks on
In Alberta, the map is also a gas map.
The operating base leans on provincial grids. Much of the Alberta proposal layer avoids the interconnection bottleneck by attaching private generation.
On-site generation
GAS
The Alberta workaround
Wonder Valley, Beacon Indus, Bitdeer Fox Creek, AVAX One, and Meta’s Sturgeon County project are designed around on-site natural gas or gas-led supply.
Provincial grid
HYDRO
Quebec’s operating base
AWS, Vantage, TELUS Rimouski, QScale, and Vantage Quebec City draw on Hydro-Québec’s near-100-percent renewable grid.
Mixed and grid-connected
GRID
Cloud before the boom
The most solid entries are cloud regions and existing campuses - less spectacular than the AI headlines, but already energized.
ALBERTA CONNECTION REQUESTS · EARLY 202621,085 MWmore than 90% of existing provincial generating capacity
BOTTLENECK
INTERIM LARGE-LOAD ALLOWANCE · THROUGH 2028~1,200 MWalready fully allocated, according to the source chapter
The ledger
Every project.
Every status.
Filter the dataset, then select any row for its dossier. Capacity is shown only where the source chapter states a figure.
| Project | Place | Status | Capacity | Power | Type |
|---|
How to read the boom
Four corrections to the press-release map.
The boom is real. Its scale, timing, fuel, and even its “AI” label require qualification.
The unit changes the story.
Operating Canada is measured in hundreds of megawatts. Announced Canada is measured in tens of gigawatts. Putting both on one total produces a number with no operational meaning.
“AI” has soft edges.
Nine projects are labelled AI campuses, but some are crypto-to-AI pivots. The four cloud regions are the most credible entries partly because they predate the current AI boom.
The server is only half the project.
Alberta developers are responding to a narrow grid door by proposing private gas generation. Several “data-centre” projects are power plants with compute attached.
A failed project belongs on the map.
Synapse near Olds, a hyperscale proposal near Winnipeg, and Steelport in Hamilton show where projects did not survive regulatory or community scrutiny. Rejections reveal the rules of the boom.
Four chapters · Three voices
Listen to the map.
The host, analyst, and reporter work through what is operating, what remains a claim, and what powers the proposed build.
Source & method
Built from a reported map - not a press-release total.
This interface is an independent visual interpretation of Colin Smillie’s July 15, 2026 chapter, “Mapping Canada’s Data-Centre Boom.” Project counts, statuses, capacities, and the editorial distinction between announced and operating capacity follow that source.
Read the original chapter at Zeever.ca ↗
Source families cited by the chapter
- Operator announcements from Meta, eStruxture, Vantage, QScale, TELUS, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Bitdeer, and O’Leary Ventures.
- Alberta Major Projects registry; Impact Assessment Agency of Canada; AESO large-load framework.
- ISED capacity material and National AI Strategy demand estimates.
- Hydro-Québec, BC Hydro, and IESO grid context.
- Reporting from Canada’s National Observer, The Narwhal, CBC News, Global News, and Data Center Dynamics.
Reading rules
- Tag every entry by current status.
- Do not add proposed gigawatts to operating megawatts.
- Treat named capacity as a project claim until energized.
- Keep rejected and contested projects in view.
CANADA COMPUTE MAP · DATA SNAPSHOT: JULY 2026 · SOURCE ATTRIBUTION RETAINED