Date : April 11 .2025
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated that Canada's abundant hydroelectric power offers the best way to run thriving artificial intelligence servers and win the global AI race, provided the country can cooperate with the United States amid a trade war with President Donald Trump.
Speaking at a conference in Vancouver, Schmidt said, "There is a real limit to energy," referring to estimates that the U.S. industry will need an additional 90 gigawatts to avoid choking data centers. He added, "By the way, my answer is think about Canada. Nice people, filled with hydroelectric power. But it seems that this is not the prevailing political mood right now," alluding to Trump's tariffs and his claims that Canada has "nothing" the U.S. needs.
He explained that a typical nuclear power plant produces about 1 gigawatt and that building 90 plants in America won't happen. "How are we going to get all this energy? This is a major national issue."
Politicians in Canada are aware of the need for energy from tech giants, and some have spoken about providing it.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, said in an interview in January: "We have about 250 data centers in Canada, and we can do more. The secret to our success lies in our energy and our vast supplies of energy in various forms: hydro, nuclear, natural gas, and others. Let's unleash the production of these resources and bring all this money back home."