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Vantage Data Centers is investing $500 million to develop the fourth and final data centre at its Quebec City campus, further expanding its presence in the province.
The fourth facility, named QC24, will add 32 megawatts (MW) of computing capacity to the 30-acre campus that will total 86 MW with the new investment. The campus will scale up to 925,000 square feet of buildings when complete, according to Vantage’s website.
Operations at QC24 are expected to begin in early 2027, with construction creating up to 400 jobs at its peak and 100 full-time on-site jobs when operational, according to the Denver-based company. Quebec-based firm Pomerleau Inc. has been contracted for construction.
QC24 will be running almost entirely on renewable energy, be designed for water and energy efficiency, and built to LEED Gold standards.
"This project will help drive innovation, meet cloud and AI (artificial intelligence) demand, and create high-quality jobs while supporting a digital future in Quebec,” Maxime Guévin, Vantage’s senior vice-president and general manager of Canada, said in the announcement.
Vantage has four campuses in Canada operating or under development — three in Montreal and the Quebec City campus. When complete, the sites will offer a combined 178 MW of capacity and represent an approximate $2.5-billion investment.
Vantage in Canada
In Montreal, Vantage has three campuses that will total 91 MW of computing power:
- QC1, an 11 MW, 60,000-square-foot facility;
- QC4, a 320,000-square-foot building with a planned 50 MW of capacity; and
- QC6, a 30 MW data centre that does not have a disclosed floor space.
Vantage has invested heavily in Canada, an example being the $900 million it poured into its Quebec campuses in 2022. Pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also supported the company in 2024 with $103 million invested into its Quebec City campus as part of a $179-million credit facility.
Outside of Canada, Vantage has 31 data centres across the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
Quebec’s data centre market
Quebec is the second-largest market for data centres in Canada according to Data Center Map, hosting 54 in Montreal and eight in Quebec City. Data centre companies operating in Quebec include Cologix, Compass, eStruxture, Enovum, Oricom and QScale.
Rising need for data storage, cloud computing and AI-powered services are driving demand for data centres in Quebec and across the country.
Microsoft is a major technology company that took an interest in Quebec, announcing plans to invest US$500 million into Quebec’s digital infrastructure in 2023. L’Ancienne-Lorette, Donnacona, Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, and Lévis were listed as cities planned to host projects - and construction has begun at several of the sites.
The province has advantages such as affordable clean electricity, tax benefits, infrastructure that accommodates the industry and being located near the U.S.
“That data will be pushed closer to the edge and live within a Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver data centre where the folks are (who) need to consume that information,” Sean Maskell, president and general manager of Cologix Canada, told RENX in 2024.
“The Quebec province is an ideal location for data centres due to our green and affordable power options, rich connectivity, cool climate and business-friendly culture,” Guevin said in 2022.
For a company like Vantage which has pledged to reach net-zero across its operational greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, Quebec’s grid that is nearly 100 per cent powered by renewable sources such as hydroelectricity is a major advantage.
But the energy abundance that drew so many data centre players into Quebec may be coming to an end because of the impact of climate change and competing demand for electricity from sources such as electric vehicles affecting the local sector.
In its H2 2024 market analysis of the Montreal market, CBRE said there was no new data centre development started in Quebec that year because of government restrictions on new power procurement.
Toronto-based commercial real estate firm ENCOR Advisors said power constraints, long timelines for power delivery and rising land prices in Montreal could push more data centre operators to consider Quebec City.
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