An entrepreneur from home at the end of patience turns our backs in Quebec for Ontario for his expansion, failing to have obtained his megawatts.
• Read also: Artificial intelligence: no new data centers in Quebec despite billions of Trump
• Read also: Criteria for the allocation of energy blocks: “we are in nothing”, deplores an entrepreneur
“Ironically and sadly, it is both these $ 4 billion in investments, jobs and economic benefits and the creation of this expertise which will now benefit Ontario,” said Martin Bouchard, president and co -founder of Qscale, in a declaration sent to Journal.
“Our expansion in Quebec is no longer possible, obtaining the necessary megawatts that have proven impossible despite all our steps from recent years,” he said.
Launched in 2018, QSCALE operates a $ 1.2 billion data center in Lévis.
The Qscale data center in Lévis.
Photo QScale
But today, the future is blocked for the company in Quebec. Last year, she canceled a $ 500 million project in St-Bruno, in Montérégie.
“Initially, we planned to invest billions of dollars in Quebec, which would have made it possible to make the province a world center for artificial intelligence [IA]while creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs, ”said Bouchard.
Host AI
In Quebec, more than 80% of data centers, which benefit from our green electricity, belong to interests outside Quebec.
At the start of the year, while Donald Trump announced $ 720 billion in the Stargate project aimed at building elephantic data centers for AI, Hydro-Québec did not show any particular interest in this sector.
Donald Trump gave a press conference by being flanked by the CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison, of Sam Altman, CEO of Openai, and Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank, last Monday, in the Roosevelt hall, in Washington.
Photo AFP
“Hydro-Québec does not have a strategy to attract new data centers in Quebec,” said Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for the Crown Company.
In the office of the Minister of Energy, Christine Fréchette, it was said to want to double the production capacity of the Crown Company for the energy transition.
“The federal government has announced investments of $ 1G for AI data centers. Quebec must have its share of these investments, ”said one.
Destination Ontario
Au JournalMartin Bouchard stressed that the province of Doug Ford now hosts open -arms data centers.
“To remain competitive and attract well -remunerated jobs, we must protect Sovereignty and Canadian data,” said Ontario Lecce, in early July press release.
It was this vision that seduced Mr. Bouchard. We learned recently, in The Logicthat he planned to build a $ 4G data center near Toronto.
Recall that, since the era of the former Minister of Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec reserves the right of life or death on projects of more than five megawatts.
Last September, the president of the Forges de Sorel, Philippe Lapierre-Bire, feared seeing some 320 well-paid jobs fly away, paid between $ 80,000 and $ 120,000, for lack of his 16 megawatts.
Louis-Philippe Lapierre-Bire, president of Sorel’s Forges, believes that the Quebec government should encourage projects like his, if only to preserve jobs with us.
Photo Francis character
“There is a real risk. We see it in Europe. There are companies questioning to close and move their activities, ”he said as an omen.
– with the collaboration of Martin Jolicoeur
