Roughly 5.3 to 5.5 billion people around the world now use the internet, representing nearly two-thirds of the global population. In Canada, internet penetration has climbed even higher, with approximately 95% of Canadians now connected online according to DataReportal’s 2026 digital overview.
At first glance, those numbers sound like technology statistics. In reality, they are increasingly becoming real estate statistics.
Every streamed Netflix series, cloud-stored document, AI-generated image, financial transaction, Zoom call, social media upload, and smart-device interaction relies on physical infrastructure somewhere in the world. The internet may feel invisible, but it is powered by enormous buildings filled with servers, cooling systems, fibre connections, and energy-intensive computing equipment.
Those buildings are data centres, and they are quickly emerging as one of the most important real estate asset classes of the next decade.
For years, commercial real estate conversations in Canada revolved around office towers, condominium development, warehousing, and retail repositioning. But the explosive rise of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital consumption is creating an entirely new category of demand: powered industrial land.
The implications for Canadian real estate are significant.
According to CBRE Canada, the Canadian data centre market was valued at approximately $10.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $16.8 billion by 2030. Canada is already home to more than 300 data centre facilities, with demand accelerating due to AI adoption and cloud infrastructure growth.
What makes this moment different is that internet growth alone is no longer the primary driver. Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the equation.
Traditional internet usage required substantial computing power, but AI workloads require dramatically more electricity, processing capability, and cooling infrastructure. CBRE notes that AI-focused data centres demand more than double the power density per server rack compared to traditional facilities.
In practical terms, this means the real estate industry is beginning to prioritize something many investors barely discussed a decade ago: access to power.
Across North America and Europe, ‘ powered land ‘ is rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after development opportunities in industrial real estate. Reuters recently reported that dormant industrial lands and underutilized sites are now being repositioned specifically for hyperscale data centre development because they already possess critical electrical infrastructure and utility access.
This trend has major implications for Canada.
Canada possesses several structural advantages that position it well for long-term digital infrastructure investment:
- abundant land
- political stability
- comparatively cool climate conditions
- growing renewable energy capacity
- and access to reliable electricity grids in key provinces
Cities and regions once overlooked by institutional capital could become highly strategic if they can provide scalable energy access and fibre connectivity.
Already, there are signs this transformation is accelerating. Reports have emerged of massive AI-focused data centre projects being proposed or developed in provinces such as Ontario, Alberta, Québec, and Saskatchewan. One recently announced Saskatchewan project tied to AI infrastructure is projected to involve billions of dollars in economic activity and was reportedly selected largely because of available power supply.
For commercial real estate developers, this creates an entirely new layer of opportunity.
Industrial land near transmission corridors may become more valuable. Former manufacturing sites could be repositioned for digital infrastructure. Municipalities with excess power capacity may suddenly find themselves competing for hyperscale investment from global technology firms.
Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, and NVIDIA are investing hundreds of billions globally into AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and next-generation data systems. As those companies race to secure long-term computing capacity, physical real estate becomes mission-critical.
However, the opportunity also comes with challenges.
Data centres consume extraordinary amounts of electricity and water. Researchers increasingly warn that concentrated AI infrastructure may place significant stress on regional power grids if growth outpaces energy planning.
This means future real estate development may become increasingly tied to energy policy. In some markets, the question may no longer be ‘ Is land available? ‘ but rather ‘ Can the grid support it? ‘
That shift could alter how municipalities, utilities, developers, and institutional investors think about land valuation altogether.
There is also a broader economic dimension. As office markets continue adjusting post-pandemic and residential affordability pressures persist across Canada, data infrastructure presents a different form of long-term investment narrative, one tied not to consumer confidence, but to global digital dependency.
The internet economy is no longer abstract. It is physical. It requires land, electricity, cooling, construction, engineering, and logistics. In many ways, data centres are becoming the railways, highways, and industrial parks of the digital age.
And if roughly two out of every three people on Earth are now online, the next great real estate expansion may not be built around where people shop or work.
It may be built around where the world computes.
BUZZ BUZZ MEDIA INC.
