Montreal entrepreneur Jason van Gaal said his vision of closing the country’s growing gap in artificial intelligence‑ready infrastructure is driving his company's plans to build a one-gigawatt data centre campus in Olds, Alberta, a project 10 times larger than any existing data centre in Canada.
Late last month, Synapse Data Center, led by van Gaal as CEO, and the town of Olds announced plans for Synapse to develop a $10 billion data center, the country's first one-gigawatt facility. In an exclusive email interview with CoStar, the Montreal entrepreneur behind the Synapse Data Center project said the moment demands bold action.
“I have always been driven by the utility side of the internet, the physical infrastructure that makes the digital world possible,” van Gaal told CoStar News. “With the explosion of AI and the considerable supply constraints the industry is facing, it made sense to deploy some capacity quickly in Canada. It has become clear to me that Canada is quickly falling behind our international friends in our ability to support AI infrastructure.”
The one-gigawatt campus is planned for the northeast corner of Highway 2A and Highway 27 in Olds, a town of just over 9,200 people about 45 minutes from the Calgary International Airport. Some 90% of the site is expected to be occupied by a high-density data centre complex powered by a dedicated closed-cycle natural gas system operating off Alberta’s grid.
One gigawatt of continuous power is enough to supply roughly 780,000 homes for a year, based on average household electricity consumption reported by Natural Resources Canada.
The project is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs and more than 1,000 long-term technology roles. Olds Mayor Dan Daley has called it one of the most significant digital infrastructure investments in all of Canada.
Van Gaal said he evaluated multiple jurisdictions before selecting Olds.
“Olds was the clear choice for this $10 billion investment because of the community’s proactive vision and the exceptional responsiveness of [economic development agency] Invest Olds and the Town of Olds,” he said. “This collaboration allowed us to advance at the speed required by global technology timelines while leveraging a strategic location between Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer."
Power availability was central to the decision, van Gaal said.
“To build a one gigawatt facility, you cannot simply plug into the existing grid without causing issues for residents,” he said. “Olds sits on a wealth of natural gas infrastructure, allowing us to generate our own power off-grid and remain self-sufficient."
Van Gaal said he understands why residents have questions because large projects inevitably raise concerns about their impact on daily life.
“Whenever you bring a project of this size to a town of 10,000 people, there are valid questions about noise, air emissions and water consumption,” he said. Synapse plans to use closed-loop cooling, which it says requires 99% less water than traditional systems, and incorporate noise-buffering berms and aesthetic design elements.
“We have not solved all of the residents’ concerns, but we are trying our best,” he said. “There is a lot of misinformation about these types of projects on the internet. We will continue to work with the province and municipality to help ensure everyone has factual information to make informed decisions.”
Before launching Synapse, van Gaal had already built a reputation for moving quickly in the data centre sector and delivering large‑scale infrastructure under tight timelines. His previous work in Montreal is the example he points to when describing how he intends to execute a project of this size in Alberta.
“In Montreal, we took underutilized industrial spaces and reconfigured them into Tier 3 data‑centre facilities,” he said. “We built capacity in 120 days, which was at least three times faster than the Canadian colocation industry at the time.”
Before launching Synapse, van Gaal founded Root Data Center, a Montreal operator later acquired by Compass Datacenters in a transaction valued at roughly $3 billion.
Synapse will now pursue regulatory approvals through the Alberta Utilities Commission, the Alberta Energy Regulator and applicable federal processes, van Gaal said. Olds College of Agriculture and Technology has already begun exploring workforce development and applied research partnerships tied to the project.
The town of Olds said it expects the data centre project to entail an "estimated two-year construction period."