The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that AI systems are developed and deployed safely and responsibly, governed by clear rules that align with the values of human rights, inclusion, and diversity, while supporting Canadian innovation and economic growth.

As part of this commitment, Securing Canada’s artificial intelligence advantage puts into action a historic Budget 2024 investment to build compute infrastructure, which refers to the computational resources required for AI systems to perform tasks. This initiative will fund ambitious, large-scale projects from industry and other ecosystem players to build and operate private-sector data centres in Canada that specialize in AI compute, with a focus on serving the needs of Canadian AI developers and innovators. A secondary focus will be placed on projects that develop innovative and environmentally sustainable Canadian components, such as AI chips, servers, high-speed networking and other hardware.

Eligible Projects

Funding will prioritize projects that meet the following objectives:

  • Build out or expand net-new AI compute capacity in Canada by:
    • Supporting the establishment of AI data centres, high performance compute clusters, testbeds and other infrastructure.
    • Safeguarding Canadian data security and sovereignty, ensuring sensitive data is processed and stored in Canada.
  • Provide flexible and affordable compute offerings for Canadian innovators, businesses and industry by:
    • Allocating substantial compute capacity at competitive rates for Canadian firms seeking to run large training or inference workloads in domestic data centres.
    • Providing access to resources to support the development and scaling of Canadian AI firms, including datasets, advanced technologies, and highly skilled talent.
  • Contribute to anchoring or growing Canadian AI champions by:
    • Securing demand for Canadian AI companies by meeting compute needs.
    • Providing domestically located and regulated capacity to the Canadian AI ecosystem.
  • Advance innovative and sustainable compute solutions by:
    • Ensuring the use of environmentally sustainable energy sources and components with cutting-edge efficiency.
    • Driving upstream supply chain benefits through the use of Canadian-made AI compute hardware or software.

Preference will be given to proposals leading to fully integrated AI data-centre solutions ready for commercial deployment. Consideration will also be given to proposals focusing on the development and commercialization of innovative and energy-efficient components for AI data centres.

Eligibility

Targeted recipients include commercial entities, industry consortia, and partnerships between industry and academia pursuing commercially viable AI compute infrastructure projects. Proposals should maximize private and public funding, including significant provincial or territorial involvement, and have meaningful participation by Canadian industry.

Timeline

Applications are being accepted on an ongoing basis and proponents are encouraged to apply without delay.

Funding

The AI Compute Challenge is expected to lead to federal investments of up to $700 million through a call for proposals to strengthen Canada’s AI ecosystem by securing domestic AI data centres that uphold data sovereignty, offer secure and affordable compute access for innovative Canadian companies, and leverage Canada’s advantages in sustainability and AI innovation.