Canada proposed $15 billion incentive to boost AI green data centre investment, Globe and Mail reports

(Reuters) - Canada's federal government has considered making up to $15 billion available as an incentive to encourage major domestic pension funds to invest in AI data centres powered by green energy, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday.

Ottawa floated the proposal in private consultation with pension funds as part of a suite of potential measures in consideration to be included in its fall economic statement, the report added citing sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Artificial intelligence tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT depend on chips and energy. But a $1 trillion rush to build data centres faces constraints on planning and power globally.

Last month, utilities, power regulators and researchers in a half-dozen countries told Reuters the surprising growth in power demand driven by the rise of AI and cloud computing is being met in the near-term by fossil fuels like natural gas, and even coal, because the pace of clean-energy deployments is moving too slowly to keep up.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)