A $10-billion investment. Over a thousand permanent, high-skilled jobs. A tax base that funds our town for a generation. Here are the facts on the Synapse data centre — straight from the Town of Olds, the company, and Alberta's regulators.
Big sky. Big opportunity.Main Street, OldsWelcome to OldsPowering Olds' next century
$10B
Private investment
2,000
Construction jobs
500+
Permanent high-skill jobs
1 GW
Of computing power
10×
Larger than any in Canada
What's actually being built
The biggest investment in our town's history.
Synapse Data Center Inc. — led by Jason van Gaal, who built and sold a hyperscale data-centre company in a $3-billion deal — chose Olds for its natural-gas access, fibre connectivity, and location between Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer. Olds College has already been engaged on training and applied research.
💧 It barely touches our water
The cooling runs on a closed loop. Per the Town's own release, it needs a single fill — less than 1% of Olds' daily water use — with no continuous draw from our system.
⚡ It powers itself
The facility runs on its own on-site natural-gas generation, not connected to the provincial grid. It doesn't compete with homes for electricity or strain public power infrastructure.
🏗️ Synapse pays for the build-out
The company funds bringing water and sewer to a currently unserviced part of town — infrastructure that can attract more business after them, plus a major boost to the tax base.
📋 It goes through full review
Approvals run through the Alberta Utilities Commission, the Alberta Energy Regulator, and provincial and federal environmental assessment. The land rezoning happened at a public council meeting.
Separating fact from fear
The scary stories, and what's actually true.
A lot of what gets shared online about this project doesn't match the published facts. Here's the honest side-by-side — check every claim against the sources at the bottom of this page.
✕ The Fear
"It'll drain Olds' drinking water."
✓ The Fact
It uses a closed-loop system with a one-time fill of under 1% of the town's daily water — no ongoing draw. It's one of the lowest-water designs available.
✕ The Fear
"It'll overload our grid and spike our power bills."
✓ The Fact
It generates its own power on-site and is not connected to the provincial grid. Your household power and rates are unaffected by it.
✕ The Fear
"Data centres are mass surveillance — Big Brother."
✓ The Fact
A data centre is rows of servers running cloud and AI workloads — the same infrastructure behind your bank, your hospital, weather forecasts and streaming. It is not a spying facility.
✕ The Fear
"It's untested, risky technology dumped on us."
✓ The Fact
Closed-loop cooling and on-site gas generation are proven, deployed at scale, and the developer has already built and sold a hyperscale operation. Emissions are regulated under Alberta's thresholds, with carbon capture flagged as a future option.
✕ The Fear
"It's all for foreign tech giants — nothing for Olds."
✓ The Fact
500+ permanent local jobs, 2,000 during construction, Olds College programs, new serviced land, and tax revenue that strengthens services for everyone in town.
Follow the noise
When a town says no, who actually wins?
Across North America, the fight over data centres has gotten loud — and it's worth asking how much of that noise is really local.
Prominent industry leaders and senior US officials have publicly argued that some of the loudest anti-data-centre campaigns aren't grassroots at all — one US cabinet secretary described it as "foreign source dark money" directed against domestic AI buildout. Reporting on those claims notes they have not been backed with public evidence and remain contested — and that residents do raise legitimate concerns worth answering.
— As reported by Tom's Hardware / The Washington Post, May 2026
Here's the question that matters for Olds: a $10-billion investment doesn't disappear when we say no — it just moves somewhere else. While we argue, others build.
On the record
The people closest to it are saying yes.
Mayor Dan Daley has called the project a major milestone for the community — pointing to jobs, taxes, and a town that's ready and well-positioned, while pledging a responsible, transparent process.
Dan Daley
Mayor of Olds
Synapse CEO Jason van Gaal says Olds was the clear choice, and that he'd have no problem living next to the gas plant himself — the more he's studied it, the less concerned he is.
Jason van Gaal
President & CEO, Synapse Data Center Inc.
Premier Danielle Smith publicly welcomed the project to Alberta, tying it to the province's strategy to attract up to $100 billion in data-centre investment with on-site "bring your own power."
Danielle Smith
Premier of Alberta
Don't take our word for it
Read the primary sources yourself.
Every number on this page comes from the Town of Olds, the developer, Alberta's project registry, or independent reporting. Check them.
