Initiative overview
The Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy responds to a recognised gap in affordable, domestic computing resources for Canadian AI researchers, businesses and innovators. During a public consultation conducted over the summer of 2024, more than 1,000 stakeholders from research, industry and civil society highlighted the high cost of compute resources and the limited availability of domestic capacity as key barriers. The strategy is guided by the findings of this consultation, published in a What We Heard Report, and is designed to safeguard Canadian data and intellectual property while enabling made-in-Canada AI solutions.
The strategy comprises three complementary elements. The first, mobilising private sector investment, allocates up to CAD $700 million through the AI Compute Challenge, which seeks proposals from companies, consortiums and academic-industry partnerships to establish commercial AI data-centre solutions in Canada. Projects must build or expand AI-specific data centre capacity, offer flexible and affordable compute, contribute to anchoring Canadian AI companies, and advance sustainable solutions. The second element, building public supercomputing infrastructure, commits up to CAD $1 billion, including a new state-of-the-art AI supercomputing system through the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP), a smaller secure facility led by Shared Services Canada and the National Research Council for government and industry R&D including national security purposes, and up to CAD $200 million in near-term augmentation of existing public infrastructure such as resources managed by the NRC, AI Institutes and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.
The third element, the AI Compute Access Fund, allocates up to CAD $300 million to help Canadian innovators and businesses purchase AI compute resources, with a focus on sectors identified as having high potential for AI adoption, including life sciences, energy and advanced manufacturing. The fund works closely with AI ecosystem organisations. Together, the three elements are designed to increase domestic compute capacity, support the broader Canadian AI ecosystem and drive economic growth, with sovereignty and security embedded as cross-cutting principles throughout the strategy.
