BCE Inc. has reached a deal with Cohere Inc. and other Canadian firms to provide data centre capacity and computing power to operate artificial intelligence models, continuing the telecom company's push to expand its AI strategy.
The capacity will come from BCE's Merritt, British Columbia data centre, the companies announced Thursday. A division of Hive Digital Technologies Ltd. will deliver AI cloud computing services using hardware from Quebec-based Hypertec Group Inc. Toronto-based Cohere will use the computing power to run its AI models, which serve government and business customers.
Fully Canadian Initiative
BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said the initiative was "fully Canadian from top to bottom." He described it as "a real practical illustration of our Canadian Sovereign AI Alliance in action where we're putting AI into production." Canada's new AI strategy, unveiled this month, is aimed in part at ensuring the country isn't as reliant on superpowers such as the United States.
Continued Partnership
BCE first partnered with Cohere nearly a year ago to integrate the startup's AI models into its enterprise services. Growth in BCE's AI businesses helped the firm beat analyst expectations in the first quarter. The telecom expects revenue from AI-powered solutions to rise by at least $500 million, to $2 billion, by 2028.
Additional Infrastructure
Another BCE data centre, a 300-megawatt facility, is being built in Saskatchewan in partnership with Coreweave Inc. and Cerebras Systems Inc.
