By Puja Tayal at The Motley Fool Canada
Hyperscalers are pouring billions of dollars into building artificial intelligence (AI) data centre infrastructure. This cash flow has made many chipmakers millionaires, as they see their revenue and earnings grow by triple digits. From Nvidia to Broadcom, Micron Technology, and Celestica, all saw a 500–1,500% rally in the last two years. While they are benefiting from hyperscaler investments, other companies, from energy to construction and communication, are also taking a piece of the AI data centre pie.
Non-tech stocks that have AI exposure
You can add the following four stocks to your AI -themed portfolio and benefit from the full AI ecosystem beyond tech stocks.
Bird Construction
Canada’s construction company Bird Construction (TSX:BDT) is undergoing a growth cycle driven by Canada’s infrastructure push for energy and logistics. Amidst the growing order books, Bird is seeing an opportunity to construct buildings for data centres, which have stringent quality, safety, and schedule demands. For Bird, the annual data centre market size is $15 billion.
Bird Construction stock has already surged 50% year-to-date and has room to grow more as it secures order wins. The current surge is from order wins for energy and industrial infrastructure. It currently has no ongoing data centre projects, but Canada’s investment in sovereign AI could see future contract wins in this space.
BCE
Speaking of data centre projects, BCE (TSX:BCE) is investing $1.2 billion in the construction of a 300-megawatt AI data centre in Saskatchewan in 2026. It has partnered with US-based tech companies for AI chips and AI computing. The first stage is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2027, and BCE expects to generate $2 billion in AI solutions revenue from 2028.
While BCE is investing in AI, its core business of telecom has piled up significant debt on its balance sheet. The company has recently completed restructuring and is now focusing on reducing debt by selling non-core assets.
BCE is not a stock to buy now for its AI opportunity, but a stock to add to the watchlist. Once the management strengthens its balance sheet and starts monetizing its AI solutions, it could be a dividend stock in the AI ecosystem.
Energy stocks with AI exposure that can generate dividends
After graphics cards, the highest cost for AI data centre is energy. They consume a significant amount of energy and have high cooling needs, because of which they need a direct power source.
Capital Power (TSX:CPX) is an independent power generation company that develops, acquires, owns, and operates power plants. The company sees opportunity in the growing power needs of US data centres. Natural gas-fired power plants are the fastest and cheapest to build. Expanding an existing plant takes three to four years and costs US$2,250 per kilowatt, while building one from scratch takes five to seven years and costs US$2,500 per kilowatt.
Capital Power’s fleet of assets in Canada and the U.S. is ready to deliver reliable power for large-scale data centre projects. The company targets adding 3.5 gigawatts of owned capacity in the United States by 2030 and growing its adjusted funds from operations at an average annual rate of 8–10%.
Enbridge (TSX:ENB) is also evaluating an opportunity of over $10 billion to supply natural gas directly to AI data centres. It is currently advancing over 50 potential data centre opportunities and up to 10 Bcf/d of capacity needs.
Neither of these energy stocks may generate tech stock-like capital growth, but data centres can help them grow their cash flows and dividends in the long term.
The post How to Get AI Exposure in Your Portfolio Without Touching Tech Stocks appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.
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Fool contributor Puja Tayal has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom, Capital Power, Celestica, Enbridge, Micron Technology, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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