Alex Tapscott Frames AI as Canada's Next National Project

On June 12, 2026, a US export-control directive forced Anthropic to disable its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models for non-US-national users globally, including foreign employees, until the restriction was lifted on June 30. Alex Tapscott, CEO of CMCC Global Capital Markets, argues in BetaKit that Canada must treat AI infrastructure as a national project akin to the 1885 Canadian Pacific Railway to avoid reliance on foreign-owned systems.

This opinion piece surfaces a concrete sovereignty risk for AI practitioners outside the US: on June 12, 2026, a US export-control directive forced Anthropic to disable its flagship Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models globally for all non-US-national users, including the company's own foreign employees, until the Commerce Department lifted the restriction on June 30. Writing in BetaKit on Canada Day, Alex Tapscott, CEO of CMCC Global Capital Markets and co-author with Don Tapscott of the Blockchain Research Institute's June 16 report "Rebuilding Canada for the New Technology Order," cites that episode as proof that foreign-owned AI infrastructure can be revoked without warning. He argues Canada should treat AI compute, data, and identity infrastructure as a national project, using the 1885 Canadian Pacific Railway as the historical analogy.