Ottawa distributes $66M in compute funding to 44 AI projects
The federal government is giving $66 million to 44 Canadian AI projects to help them access the computing power needed to scale and commercialize their work. AI Minister Evan Solomon announced the first batch of winners Tuesday at Web Summit Vancouver.
The money comes from the AI Compute Access Fund, which has a total budget of $300 million. Solomon said demand for the fund exceeded expectations, with far more applications than anticipated.
The 44 projects span life sciences, health care, energy, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, finance, natural resources, and transportation. Eight projects based in British Columbia are receiving a combined $16.8 million.
How the fund works
The program covers two-thirds of eligible costs for Canadian cloud-based AI compute services, or half the costs for non-Canadian services. Individual projects can receive between $100,000 and $5 million.
Selection criteria include market potential, financial capacity, and whether projects deliver economic, innovation, and public benefits to Canada. Alignment with federal priorities also factors into decisions.
Drug discovery startup among winners
Variational AI, a Vancouver-based drug discovery company, is among the recipients. Co-founder Handol Kim said the funding will let the company's machine learning scientists access compute resources they need.
"That accelerates the improvement of our models, which then makes better drugs, and we can help patients and meet unmet medical needs," Kim told CBC.
National AI strategy coming
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the federal government's national AI strategy is "about to come out," though he did not provide a specific date. The strategy has been delayed multiple times.
The government's spring economic update outlined six pillars for the strategy: protecting Canadians and democracy, empowering citizens, driving AI adoption for prosperity, building sovereign AI capacity, scaling Canadian companies, and forming trusted global partnerships.
The strategy will also address AI training access for all Canadians, updated privacy laws, national AI safety capabilities, and secure government systems.
Infrastructure moves
The government announced Monday it is advancing work with Telus on expanding an AI data centre in Kamloops, B.C., and developing two new facilities in Vancouver. A spokesperson for Solomon's office said no federal dollars are currently allocated to those projects, though off-take agreements or contracts could be part of future arrangements.
For government professionals seeking to understand these developments, resources on AI for Government and the AI Learning Path for Policy Makers offer deeper context on federal AI policy and governance frameworks.
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