Key insights
- Bell Canada's partnership with Cohere, Hypertec, and BUZZ HPC to build AI infrastructure in Canada, utilizing Bell's data centers and NVIDIA's accelerated computing, signals a growing trend in domestic AI development. While primarily a Canadian initiative, it reflects broader global investment in AI infrastructure and could indirectly benefit US-based technology providers like NVIDIA and potentially influence US cloud and hardware companies through competitive dynamics and demand signals. The move also highlights the increasing importance of sovereign AI capabilities.
MONTREAL - Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) announced today a partnership with Cohere, Hypertec and BUZZ High Performance Computing to develop AI infrastructure in Canada. The $21.77 billion telecom company, a prominent player in the Diversified Telecommunication Services industry according to InvestingPro, is expanding its AI infrastructure capabilities as it trades at a P/E ratio of 4.87.
Under the agreement, Bell will provide data centre capacity and connectivity services from its Merritt, British Columbia facility. BUZZ HPC, a subsidiary of Hive Digital Technologies (TSX:HIVE) (NASDAQ:HIVE), will deliver cloud infrastructure using Hypertec’s hardware cluster and NVIDIA accelerated computing. Cohere will use the platform to operate its foundation models and support AI solutions for government and enterprise customers.
The collaboration builds on previously announced partnerships and follows the launch of Bell AI Fabric and the Canadian Sovereign AI Alliance. Bell has maintained dividend payments for 56 consecutive years with a current yield of 5.38%, while InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is undervalued relative to its Fair Value. Bell will provide the data centre and connectivity foundation, while BUZZ HPC will supply scalable computing infrastructure built on hardware manufactured in Canada by Hypertec.
"This landmark deal helps close that gap. Through our partnership, Cohere will operate its AI models in Bell AI Fabric infrastructure, enabled by the combined capabilities of Hypertec and BUZZ HPC," said Michel Richer, President of Bell AI Fabric, according to a press release statement.
Michael Pelosi, Country Manager for Canada at Cohere, said the collaboration gives the company another way to support customers in Canada with AI infrastructure that reflects Canadian priorities.
Hypertec, founded in 1984, serves clients in over 80 countries as an NVIDIA OEM partner. BUZZ HPC operates GPU clusters across nine time zones and three continents, with facilities powered by renewable energy.
The companies stated the partnership aims to support organizations seeking Canadian-based AI infrastructure. The agreement reflects demand for infrastructure that enables control over data, performance and security for AI workloads.
Cohere, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, has raised approximately $1.6 billion from investors including AMD Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Oracle and Cisco.
In other recent news, BCE Inc. reported its first-quarter 2026 earnings, exceeding analysts’ expectations. The company achieved an earnings per share of CAD 0.63, surpassing the projected CAD 0.5767, resulting in a 9.24% surprise. Revenue also outperformed forecasts, reaching CAD 6.17 billion compared to the anticipated CAD 6.10 billion. In addition to its strong financial performance, BCE Inc. has announced a significant development in its infrastructure projects. The company named Bird Construction Inc. as the lead construction partner for its 300 MW AI data center in Saskatchewan. This facility is part of a broader Canada-wide AI data center buildout, with the first phase expected to become operational in the first half of 2027. The project will serve customers such as Cerebras and CoreWeave. These recent developments highlight BCE Inc.’s ongoing growth and expansion efforts.
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