PowerBank Corporation (Nasdaq: PBK) (Cboe CA: PBK) (FSE: 103) announced on October 29, 2026, that its joint development partner has executed the first lease and that the company is in the development of a 2 MW modular data center in Ontario.

The project is the first of several sites PowerBank plans to develop across Ontario under a joint development agreement.

PowerBank Project Targets USD 1.43 Million Annual Lease Revenue

The Toronto-based independent energy developer expects to earn revenue by leasing the project's powered shell to an AI cloud operator, which would install and operate its own GPUs.

If a tenant is secured on the terms assumed in the announcement, and the project is permitted, financed, constructed, and operational, the facility could generate approximately USD 1.43 million in annual lease revenue, to be shared between PowerBank and its partner under the joint development agreement.

Designed for High-Density Inference Workloads

The project is designed to accommodate approximately 500 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs, to be provided by an AI cloud tenant.

Based on current-generation NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems, which require direct-to-chip liquid cooling, a facility with approximately 1.77 MW of IT capacity could accommodate approximately 500 GPUs across 11 racks, with approximately 220 TB of aggregate GPU memory.

The capital cost of the project's facility, including land, the modular data center shell, electrical systems, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and fiber connectivity, is estimated at approximately USD 7.15 million, to be funded by PowerBank and its partner.

GPUs, servers, and related computing equipment are not included in this estimate and are expected to be purchased by the tenant for its own use.

Positioning Around Distributed AI Compute

PowerBank frames the project as a response to a structural shift in how AI compute is deployed.

According to McKinsey & Company, as AI moves from training large models to running them for businesses and consumers, inference is projected to account for approximately 60% of AI compute demand by 2030 and to grow at roughly 36% per year.

McKinsey expects inference compute to be distributed across cloud, enterprise, edge, and device, with location driven by economics, latency, and data control.

The company points to workloads such as real-time video analytics, industrial automation, and voice and physical AI, which perform best when compute sits close to where data is generated, rather than in a distant hyperscale campus.

Power Access Drives Edge Data Center Growth

Demand for distributed capacity is growing quickly, according to figures cited in the announcement. Grand View Research estimates that the global edge data center market will reach USD 105.8 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 14.9% from 2026, with North America accounting for the largest regional share at 35.5% in 2025.

PowerBank also highlighted power access as a gating factor for new data center capacity, noting that large-load interconnection queues are stretching for years in many North American markets.

Modular edge data centers that can plug into existing generation and distribution infrastructure address both needs, the company argues: they place compute close to users while drawing on power that is already available.

"Compute is following power, and the companies that already have power on the ground are the ones that will win the next phase of AI," said Dr. Richard Lu, Chief Executive Officer of PowerBank.

"This first lease shows our model at work: an energy site we have already developed now positioned to earn a second revenue stream from AI infrastructure. As inference moves closer to the people and businesses who use it, North America will need many smaller data centers built in months, not a handful of giant campuses built over years. PowerBank's portfolio is positioned for exactly that shift, and we expect this to be the first of many sites we advance with our partner."

Approvals Still Outstanding, Operations Targeted for Fiscal 2028

The project is expected to require a zoning by-law amendment and a building permit from the local municipality, and the parties are coordinating a pre-consultation meeting with the municipality to confirm these and any other requirements. None of these approvals has yet been obtained.

Subject to receipt of the required approvals, construction is expected to take approximately 8 to 12 months, with commercial operation currently anticipated in PowerBank's fiscal year 2028, ending June 30, 2028.

PowerBank has not yet entered into an agreement with a tenant for the project's capacity and states it is in discussions with several potential tenants.

Competitive Landscape and Forward-Looking Caveats

The company cautioned that the market for AI data center capacity is highly competitive. The project will compete for tenants with other data center developers and operators, including colocation providers and developers of modular and edge facilities.

Prospective tenants will in turn compete with hyperscale cloud providers, established AI cloud providers, and government-supported compute initiatives, many of which have significantly greater resources, scale, and operating capacity.

The revenue guidance of approximately USD 1.43 million in annual lease revenue is a financial outlook that PowerBank says is intended to assist investors, shareholders, and others in understanding certain financial metrics relating to the project.

The company notes this information may not be appropriate for other purposes, is forward-looking, and should be read in conjunction with the disclosure in the press release, including the economic, competitive, and regulatory assumptions, factors, and risks that may cause actual future financial and operating results to differ from current expectations.

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