Anthropic in talks to lease large, hyperscale data centre campus near Edmonton

Anthropic is in talks to lease a hyperscale data centre campus northeast of Edmonton, according to sources.

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’s industrial heartland, two sources said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources, who weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

San Francisco-based Anthropic and Beacon declined requests for comment.

The site will include four data halls intended to contain artificial-intelligence and high-performance computing facilities, according to documents Beacon submitted to Alberta’s Utilities Commission on July 17.

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 published by the AUC, with an in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2027.

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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.

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 initial phase of the campus.

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.

Compute capacity at the site would support Anthropic’s 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.

The EverWind campus is estimated to cost $10-billion and represent the largest private investment in Nova Scotia history.

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Aside from the Nova Scotia and Sturgeon County, Alta., projects, it’s not clear if Anthropic is pursuing other data-centre locations in Canada.

Anthropic spent more than US$7-billion ​on ⁠computing and infrastructure last year, or three times as much as it did in 2024.

Anthropic’s 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.