Bell Canada (BCE.TO) announced Thursday the next set of development and construction partners for Bell AI Fabric's 300 MW data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, Saskatchewan, and formalized a long-term partnership with Bird Construction (BDT.TO) to support a multi-year, Canada-wide AI data centre buildout.
"The Sherwood facility, first announced in March, is a cornerstone of Bell AI Fabric's strategy to deliver sovereign, made-in-Canada AI infrastructure across the country," said the company.
Bird Construction has been selected as the lead construction partner for the Sherwood facility, with Alton Tangedal Architect Ltd. as Architect of Record and partners of George Gordon Developments for site services, it added.
"Canada's AI economy needs world-class digital infrastructure, and we need partners with the scale, discipline and Canadian footprint to build it on time," said Dan Rink, President, Bell AI Infrastructure and Strategy. "The team announced today gives us that foundation in Saskatchewan. With Bird as our preferred construction partner, we are well-positioned to continue to build out critical AI infrastructure for Canada in the years to come."
As part of the strategic partnership, Bird will issue Bell warrants to acquire up to around 2.6 million common shares of Bird, with 750,000 warrants vesting on the delivery of the Sherwood facility and the remainder vesting in connection with the delivery of potential future AI data centre projects, as and when delivered by Bird pursuant to the strategic partnership, over a period of five years.
The issuance of the warrants is subject to TSX Approval, said the company and added that the warrants will have a term of seven years and an exercise price of $52.00, "equal to the 5-day volume weighted average price of Bird's common shares preceding this announcement," added the company.