With the Government of Canada’s launch of the new Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, the country is now in a stronger position to emerge as a global leader in artificial intelligence. This groundbreaking $2B investment is aimed at strengthening domestic AI compute capacity, and the injection of funding is crucial to advancing research and innovation across various sectors from health care to climate.
The strategy includes funding in these key areas:
- Mobilizing private sector investment (up to $700 million) to support the Canadian AI ecosystem through increased domestic AI compute capacity. This will be accomplished through the AI Compute Challenge which will focus on projects from companies, consortiums, and academic-industry partnerships to establish fully integrated AI data-centre solutions ready for commercial deployment.
- Building public supercomputing infrastructure ($1 billion) that will meet the needs of researchers, government, and industry. Sovereign public AI infrastructure is essential for ensuring Canada's competitive edge and sovereignty in the global AI space. In the near term, up to $200 million of this funding pool will enhance existing public compute infrastructure for immediate needs. This near-term capacity could be delivered by expanding existing public infrastructure such as the resources managed by the NRC, the AI Institutes, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.
- AI Compute Access Fund will support the purchase of AI compute resources by Canadian innovators and businesses. Through an investment of up to $300 million, this plan aims to tackle the of compute resources and the limited availability of domestic capacity. The Access Fund aims to address barriers to AI development in sectors that require high-performance computing capacity and have high potential for AI adoption, such as life sciences, energy, and advanced manufacturing.
“We applaud the Federal Government’s commitment to investing in national digital research infrastructure. Canada must use this momentum to get back to the global centre stage, as our G7 peers are prioritizing investments in AI, computing, and digital research infrastructure to create the necessary foundation for future tech innovations, safeguarding and data, and accelerating discovery work nationally. Our focus at the Alliance is on leveraging our world-class tech and research talent to build our economy and preserve the sovereignty and security of our national data, which is quickly becoming some of our most significant national assets” shared Digital Research Alliance of Canada CEO, George Ross.
Benefits to researchers
This strategy will provide Canadian researchers with enhanced access to compute capacity, empowering them to conduct groundbreaking research in AI and related fields. The emphasis on expanding public infrastructure and creating secure, scalable facilities ensures that the needs of the academic community will be met both in the near term and over the long term.
Next steps for the Alliance
Through our federal funding model, the Alliance brings together provincial partners spanning coast to coast to set the strategy and champion critical digital research infrastructure solutions needed for tech and innovation advancement. The Alliance aims to lead the nation in seizing this incredible opportunity to unlock our digital potential for Canada’s researchers, innovators and economy.
Our strategic focus and mission to support researchers with the infrastructure they need to drive innovation and maintain Canada’s leadership in AI while addressing the pressing needs across the nation for greater compute capacity, future-proofing our systems, and building out Canada’s high-calibre technical workforce through specialized and integrated training programs.
Learn more about the Digital Research Alliance of Canada