Opens $867 million data center in Levis

Martin Bouchard, president and co-founder of QScale, explains that the supercomputers that will be hosted in Levis will be used to perform highly complex calculations in various sectors of activity ranging from developing vaccines to developing technologies used in self-driving subcars.

According to Mr. Bouchard, the complex of the future will become one of the most important computer processing centers for energy recovery in the world. The widespread use of artificial intelligence is expected to lead to an explosion in demand for this type of fixation.

What makes us even more confident is the truly global demand. We can really see that there is a trend. There is a shortage of accounts. It’s funny to imagine, but people and researchers need accounts The businessman insists.

The tools used for high-performance calculations consume a lot of energy. Martin Bouchard compared the electricity consumption of the complex to the consumption of 30 Bell Center .

QScale has therefore entered into an agreement with Hydro-Québec under which it will be able to utilize a power capacity of more than 140 MW to supply its state-of-the-art processing center.

Quebec and Desjardins Partners

Legault’s government, through Investissement Québec, will invest $90 million in the center in the form of loans and a stake in the company.

For its part, Desjardins Capital will invest $60 million in the project. Several private investors, all from Quebec, will pump a total of 45 million into the venture.

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Construction work has already begun on the QScale data processing center in the Saint-Nicolas district of Levis.

Photo: Radio Canada / Dominic Martell

The Minister of Finance, Economy and Innovation, Eric Girard, indicated that his government’s investment will enable the strengthening of the information technology sector in Quebec, in addition to directly benefiting from the economic benefits of the Center for the Future.

This project responds to a rapidly growing global need due to the volume of data generated by mobile applications and new technologies, including artificial intelligence., confirmed.

Minister Eric Girard expects the QScale project to strengthen the digital technology sector in Quebec.

Photo: Radio Canada / Dominic Martell

food ingredient

It will also allow heat recovery from several servers to create greenhouses that will be built close to the technology park.

Once the project is completed, the company founded in 2018 expects to produce 2,800 tons of berries and more than 80,000 tons of tomatoes each year.

The data center project represents an investment of $867 million.

Photo: QScale

The Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontane, believes that the center will help achieve the goal set by his government by doubling the area under greenhouses in Quebec.

This was the goal of 120 hectares of greenhouses and going to 240 hectares. Going to 300, 350, 400 hectares, these are things that can be achieved Mr. Lamontani predicted.

The first phase of the QScale project is expected to be completed at the end of 2022. It is worth $195 million, and includes building the strategic infrastructure that will form Backbones from the data center.

In collaboration with Oliver Limio and Camille Carpenter