Canada aims to strengthen its AI independence with a major investment in domestic computing capabilities. The government plans to work closely with local AI companies on this initiative.
The Canadian government has revealed its strategy to build up its AI computing infrastructure. According to officials at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry, the government will invest $2 billion CAD in technical infrastructure for artificial intelligence development.
The plan focuses on three key investments. Up to $700 million will go toward new data center construction. Another $1 billion is earmarked for public supercomputer infrastructure. The final $300 million will help small and medium businesses access computing power.
"The strategy we’re announcing today is a major step toward securing Canada’s place as a global AI leader," said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry.
The new investment program will fully launch in spring 2025. The government says it will prioritize projects that promise strong returns on public investment and meet sustainability standards.
AI startup Cohere lined up for data center project
Canadian AI startup Cohere could benefit from this investment push. In a recent message to investors and staff, CEO Aidan Gomez stressed the importance of custom AI solutions for businesses, touching on the plateau that LLMs seem to have reached recently:
"Several years into the development of LLMs, there is a very small group of players–including Cohere–producing leading AI models. Year-over-year, models continue to improve and deliver capabilities beyond what almost anyone could have predicted five years ago. That said, these models’ performance on general use-cases and benchmarks are increasingly similar and our customers are rightly shifting their focus towards their own use-cases and evals."
Gomez wrote that scaling generic language models isn't enough. Instead, Cohere is focusing on highly specialized AI systems that prioritize security and adaptability. The company is working with Oracle and Fujitsu on custom AI solutions.
Government data shows Canada employs more than 140,000 AI specialists and hosts 10 percent of the world's leading AI researchers. The Canadian AI sector attracted over $8.6 billion in venture capital funding in 2022, making up 30 percent of total VC investment.
Women's participation in AI stands out particularly: with 67% growth in 2022/23, Canada leads globally in this metric. The country also filed AI patents at nearly triple the G7 average, showing a 57% increase.
