08:09 AM EDT, 03/16/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Canadian telco giant BCE (BCE.TO, BCE) was at last look up 0.7% in US premarket trade on Monday as it updated its 2026 financial guidance targets and 2025-2028 financial outlooks while announcing that a new 300 MW data centre will be built in Sherwood, Saskatchewan.

The company in a statement said given the "material" impact of this Saskatchewan investment and its "expected positive impact" on BCE's financial profile, it is updating its 2026 financial guidance targets, as originally provided on February 5, 2026, and its 2025-2028 financial outlook, as originally provided on October 14, 2025. The financial guidance, which has been updated solely to reflect the expected financial impact of the new data centre, reflects BCE's "confidence" in strong revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow growth.

BCE is also increasing its objective for AI-powered solutions revenue from approximately $1.5 billion by 2028 to approximately $2.0 billion by 2028.

It said the construction of this facility will require approximately $1.7 billion of incremental capital expenditures, with approximately $1.3 billion expected to be incurred in 2026, funded through a combination of debt and cash-on-hand. On a run-rate adjusted EBITDA basis, the transaction is expected to be leverage-neutral. BCE added it remains focused on achieving its target net debt leverage ratio of 3.5x by the end of 2027, falling below 3.5x in 2028, and intends to continue reducing leverage toward its policy level of approximately 3.0x by 2030.

On its investment in Saskatchewan, BCE said this will be Bell Canada's largest investment in the province, and will create the largest purpose-built AI data centre development in the country.

Over time, the facility is projected to generate economic value of up to $12 billion for the province. Construction will support at least 800 jobs in the trades and engineering, with a minimum of 80 full-time roles created once the facility is fully operational. Based on industry research, as many as 750 additional community jobs could result from a large data centre deployment of this nature.

Construction will begin this spring and the facility's first stage is expected to come online in the first half of 2027, a statement noted.

"Today's announcement is an exciting illustration of the impact of Bell's strategic priority to lead in enterprise with AI-powered solutions. Our largest-ever investment in Saskatchewan will deliver the cutting-edge, high-performance compute necessary to innovate at speed, bring major economic benefits to the province and create a competitive advantage for our country," said Mirko Bibic, BCE and Bell Canada chief executive officer.

BCE shares are up US$0.18, to US$25.43, in New York trading. It closed up $0.06, to $35.09, on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.