Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy

The Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy is Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's plan for spending the $2 billion over five years that Budget 2024 allocated to domestic AI computing capacity. It was announced in Ottawa on 5 December 2024 by François-Philippe Champagne, then Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, following a public consultation that ran from 26 June to 6 September 2024 and drew input from more than 1,000 stakeholders across research, industry, and civil society.

The stated aim is sovereignty over compute: capacity that is physically located in Canada, Canadian-owned or Canadian-operated, and governed by Canadian law, so that Canadian researchers and firms are not dependent on foreign infrastructure to train and run their models. It is the infrastructure counterpart to the governance and safety measures tracked elsewhere in this timeline, and the foundation later built on by the sovereign-AI pillar of AI for All, Canada's 2026 national AI strategy.

The $2 billion is split across three pillars:

• Mobilizing private-sector investment — up to $700 million. The AI Compute Challenge co-invests in new or expanded commercial AI data centres in Canada, prioritizing projects that can start quickly, show a high return on public investment, and meet sustainability and Canadian-supply-chain criteria. Its first recipient was Toronto-based Cohere, offered up to $240 million in December 2024 toward a $725-million data centre project; the investment was finalized in March 2025.
• Public computing infrastructure — up to $1 billion. Up to $705 million funds a new, publicly owned and Canadian-operated AI supercomputing system, delivered through the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP), with up to $200 million for near-term augmentation of existing public compute so researchers are not left waiting for the new system.
• AI Compute Access Fund — up to $300 million. Subsidizes access to existing commercial compute for Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises, so that firms without capital for their own hardware can still train models and ship AI products.

SCIP, the strategy's flagship, opened for applications on 15 April 2026 and closed on 1 June 2026. Its program guide makes up to roughly $890 million available over seven fiscal years beginning in 2026–27 — combining the Budget 2024 allocation with further investment from Budget 2025 — to design, build, and operate a national Canada AI supercomputer. Proposals had to be led by a Canadian not-for-profit or post-secondary institution (or a consortium led by one), and the program is structured in two layers: an Infrastructure Build Layer that constructs and operates the system, and a National Service Layer handling user support and integration with Canada's existing digital research infrastructure.