Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is throwing serious money at artificial intelligence infrastructure, and Canada just became the latest beneficiary of what might be the tech industry's biggest capital spending spree in years.
The company announced its largest-ever investment in Canada: $19 billion CAD between 2023 and 2027. More than $7.5 billion CAD of that will hit in just the next two years, funding new digital and AI infrastructure that's expected to come online in the second half of 2026.
Building Digital Sovereignty, One Data Center at a Time
Microsoft is expanding its Azure Canada Central and Canada East data centers to deliver what the company calls secure, sustainable, and scalable cloud and AI capabilities. This isn't just about adding server racks—the expansion is creating thousands of construction, engineering, and technology jobs while enabling Canadian companies across retail, cleantech, and other sectors to actually use AI tools.
The digital sovereignty angle is interesting. Microsoft opened a Threat Intelligence Hub in Ottawa, enhanced in-country data processing for AI services, and launched something called the Sovereign AI Landing Zone for secure AI deployment within Canada's borders. It's a recognition that countries increasingly want their data processed locally, not just floating around global server farms.
Microsoft is also investing in talent development to build out the workforce that can actually use all this new infrastructure.
A Global AI Infrastructure Blitz
Canada is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Microsoft is rapidly expanding its global AI infrastructure by building a massive "super factory" data center in Atlanta and planning to double its worldwide data center footprint within two years.
The company is investing heavily in specialized AI training hubs packed with Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) graphics processing units, strengthening high-speed links across its Fairwater network, and committing billions to new sites in Portugal and the UAE.
Through partnerships with G42 and regional developers, Microsoft is positioning the Middle East and Europe as key AI and cloud hubs while ramping up long-term capital spending to support large-scale AI model training and deployment. The scale of investment suggests Microsoft sees AI infrastructure as the fundamental competitive advantage for the next decade of cloud computing.
Stock Performance Lags Broader Tech Rally
Despite the ambitious expansion plans, Microsoft stock gained just over 16% year-to-date, lagging the Nasdaq Composite's 22% return. Shares were up 0.12% at $491.64 at last check Tuesday.
The underperformance might reflect investor concerns about the sheer size of capital commitments required to stay competitive in AI infrastructure, or simply that expectations for Microsoft were already sky-high coming into the year.