The scale of what’s coming is hard to overstate. A recent paper from York University—the first comprehensive mapping of Canada’s data centre landscape—puts numbers to the behemoths Canadians have started to see proposed in their backyards.

There are 194 currently-active data centres across Canada. These are buildings stacked with computer servers: the hardware that stores and processes the information that supports the cloud, social media, and the global finance system. At present, just five of those are “hyperscalers.” The threshold for a hyperscaler is debated, but the York paper defines them as data centres that draw over 50 megawatts (MW) of power, making them large enough to train and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) models.

The expansion that’s happening now would bring an additional 159 hyperscalers to Canada, in places like Olds, Alberta; Mississauga, Ontario; and Vancouver, B.C. These planned hyperscalers need, on average, over ten times more power than the currently-operational facilities.