Anthropic Reportedly in Talks for Edmonton Campus With 920 MW Gas Plant
Anthropic is reportedly negotiating a lease at Beacon Data Centers' Sturgeon County campus near Edmonton, where Alberta approved a 920 MW gas plant on Oct. 23; no deal is signed.
Chips & Power DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
EverWind Fuels' Point Tupper, Nova Scotia site, where EverWind said Anthropic signed a lease for the first phase. This is the Nova Scotia campus, not the Sturgeon County, Alberta site.
Image: EverWind Fuels
Source · Press image from the EverWind Fuels website, used for news reporting.
Anthropic is reportedly in talks to lease a hyperscale data centre campus in Sturgeon County, northeast of Edmonton, that would run on a 920 MW natural gas-fired power plant, the Globe and Mail reported on Oct. 30, citing two sources. Nothing is signed.
The sources told the Globe that Anthropic is negotiating with Calgary-based Beacon Data Centers Inc., the developer, to be the tenant. The sources were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Anthropic and Beacon both declined to comment, according to the Globe.
What the filings show
Beacon told the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) on July 17 that the site will hold four data halls for artificial-intelligence and high-performance computing, the Globe reported. The AUC approved the 920 MW gas plant on Oct. 23. Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with an in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2027, according to the AUC decision as described by the Globe.
The 920 MW gas plant is the size of the power plant, not the campus IT load; its Q4 2027 in-service date is the earliest on-site power, per the AUC decision as described by the Globe.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The 920 MW figure is the size of the power plant, not the IT capacity of the campus. The Globe does not give a critical IT load for the data halls, and it does not say what approvals the data halls need beyond the power plant.
Second Canadian site in two weeks
This would be Anthropic's second large Canadian site in weeks. Halifax-based EverWind Fuels said on Oct. 16 that Anthropic signed a 20-year lease for an 18,600-square-metre facility in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, for the first phase of a campus there. According to EverWind, that phase draws 95 MW from late 2027, and a 325 MW second phase from 2028 brings the total to 420 MW. The Globe puts the cost of the Nova Scotia campus at an estimated $10 billion.
The Globe adds that it is unclear whether Anthropic is pursuing other Canadian locations beyond Nova Scotia and Sturgeon County. The Globe does not say how the Sturgeon County campus would connect to the grid, and the gas plant's late-2027 in-service date would set the earliest point at which on-site power could be available.
Why it matters for compute capacity
Anthropic is stacking up capacity on several fronts. Voltgrid News reported that NVIDIA is in talks to guarantee Nscale debt for a West Virginia site built for Anthropic, and the company's own filing flagged memory supply as a risk as its compute costs climb. The Globe says Anthropic has committed to spend between US$525 billion and US$567 billion on future compute and infrastructure, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
What is not confirmed yet
No lease terms, tenant capacity, price or start date have been reported for Sturgeon County. The talks come from unnamed sources, and neither company has confirmed them. Watch for a Beacon or Anthropic statement, any AUC filing for the data halls themselves, and any change to the gas plant's fourth-quarter 2027 in-service date.
