Canada just made its boldest move yet in the global AI race. At this week's All In Canada AI Ecosystem event in Montreal, NVIDIA executives joined government ministers to unveil the country's first fully sovereign AI factory while outlining a national strategy that puts digital independence at the center of Canada's tech future. The timing couldn't be more critical as nations worldwide scramble to build their own AI capabilities.
Canada just threw down the gauntlet in the global AI sovereignty race. At Montreal's All In Canada AI Ecosystem event this week, the country unveiled its most ambitious AI infrastructure project yet - and NVIDIA was right there to back the play.
The centerpiece announcement came from TELUS, which launched Canada's first fully sovereign AI factory in Rimouski, Quebec. Powered by NVIDIA's latest accelerated computing platform and built in partnership with HPE, the facility promises something most countries are still dreaming about: complete control over their AI destiny.
"Every nation should develop its own AI - not just outsource it," NVIDIA Vice President of Generative AI Software Kari Briski told the packed room of founders, researchers, and government officials. "AI must reflect local values, understand cultural context, and align with national norms and policies. Digital intelligence isn't something you can simply outsource."
The event brought together Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, Cohere cofounder Aiden Gomez, and Briski in what felt more like a war council than a tech conference. Solomon didn't mince words about the stakes: "For our government, for our country, 'All In' means building digital sovereignty - the most pressing policy, democratic issue of our time."
The timing is no accident. TELUS's new facility is already serving clients including OpenText, offering end-to-end AI capabilities from model training to inference while keeping all data firmly within Canadian borders. The factory runs on 99% renewable energy through TELUS's PureFibre network - a detail that matters as AI's energy demands come under global scrutiny.
But this isn't just about one facility. RBC Capital Markets has been quietly building enterprise-grade AI agents for capital markets research using NVIDIA software. These agents, designed with NVIDIA Nemotron open models and deployed through NVIDIA NIM microservices, are already transforming how Canadian financial analysts work.
