Ottawa outlines $2B in spending for artificial intelligence computing power

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OTTAWA — The federal government says it will spend up to $1 billion to build public computing infrastructure for the Canadian artificial intelligence sector, part of a $2 billion commitment outlined in this spring’s federal budget.

A government official not authorized to speak publicly on the issue says that supercomputing infrastructure will be made available to businesses and researchers across Canada.

The official says the government will issue a call for proposals in the spring for a partner to build the infrastructure, and will allocate a $200 million portion of the money to sites in Canada that already have publicly funded compute capacity.

The government says it will allocate $300 million of that for a fund to allow small and medium-sized Canadian businesses to buy affordable computing power, also to be launched in the spring.

It will also put $700 million towards projects by industry, academics and others to build commercial AI data centres.

The government said in a press release there “will be an application process for these funds, with priority given to Canadian projects that can demonstrate high rate of return on public investment, sustainability, and other markers of success.”