Canada opens applications to build a national AI supercomputer
Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, opens the call for applications under the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program (SCIP) — the public supercomputing pillar of the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy. Eligible Canadian not-for-profits, post-secondary institutions, and consortia they lead are invited to design, build, operate, and maintain a large-scale, AI-optimized, Canadian-owned and Canadian-operated high-performance computing system for Canadian researchers and innovators. Applications closed on 1 June 2026.
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.
Organizations
- ISED — organizer