Canada is leading by example in AI

Canada's ALL IN conference in Montréal drew its largest crowd yet, with Toronto AI developer Cohere reaching terms to join forces with Germany's Aleph Alpha to create a rival to US AI giants, and Canada and Germany jointly backing AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio's cross-border institute LawZero with roughly $300 million CAD for safe-by-design AI. Minister Evan Solomon said Québec institute Mila would receive "tens of millions" of dollars for open-source AI applications and claimed Canada will have a digital regulator that "actually bites." The event also saw protests outside the conference, broken windows and anti-data-centre graffiti at Mila, and an interruption of Solomon's closing panel.

Past editions of the Montréal AI conference ALL IN focused on reclaiming Canada’s squandered opportunity in AI. With the global spotlight on Canada this week, this year’s event drew its largest crowd yet and saw Canada retake a leadership role in developing the tech. Matching the Canada Investment Summit earlier, international collaboration took centre stage. Canada advanced the sovereign tech alliance signed in February with ALL IN’s “country of honour” Germany through new partnership announcements and co-investments. As more than 40 German companies mingled with Canadian AI leaders, Toronto AI developer Cohere reached terms https://betakit.com/cohere-reaches-terms-with-german-peer-aleph-alpha-to-take-on-ai-giants/ to join forces with Germany’s Aleph Alpha and create a rival to US AI giants. Canada also leveraged the German connection to tackle the possibility of AI leading to human extinction https://betakit.com/are-ai-labs-gambling-with-our-lives/ . The countries jointly backed https://betakit.com/yoshua-bengios-lawzero-receives-300-million-backing-from-canada-and-germany-to-pursue-safer-ai-ambitions/ AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio’s cross-border institute LawZero with roughly $300 million CAD to develop safe-by-design AI something the industry has shown it sorely needs . Responsible AI use within Canada was also a priority for the feds at ALL IN. Minister Evan Solomon revealed that Québec institute Mila https://betakit.com/mila-negotiating-new-federal-funding-after-being-tasked-with-open-source-ai-file/ would get “tens of millions” of dollars to support the development of practical, open-source AI applications. He also claimed that Canada will have a digital regulator that actually bites https://betakit.com/ai-minister-affirms-canada-will-have-tech-super-regulator-with-teeth/ . But ALL IN’s increased prominence came with noticeable AI backlash: protestors demonstrated outside the conference, police found broken windows and anti-data-centre graffiti at Mila earlier in the week, and ALL IN’s closing panel with Solomon was interrupted by a protestor. “When we’re talking about building the digital future and AI, there’s a crowd here that’s deeply involved in it,” Solomon said, after the protestor was removed. “There’s also a huge world that has real concerns about the risks. It’s incumbent that we do this together, openly and transparently.” The world’s eyes are once again on Canadian AI. ALL IN was a reminder that Canada has an opportunity to lead by example, striking a balance between growth and responsible development of the industry it helped foster. Madison McLauchlan, Montréal reporter Most AI projects do not fail on the model; they fail on foundations nobody checked first. Dedicatted’s AI Opportunity and Readiness Assessment finds the AI use cases actually worth doing in your business, tells you honestly whether your data is ready, and maps a costed path to production, all in four weeks and about six hours of your team’s time. You walk away with four documents: a prioritized use case register, a readiness scorecard, a target architecture and business case, and a twelve-month roadmap. It’s funded through AWS partner programs, so qualifying businesses pay nothing. Book your assessment today to learn more. https://dedicatted.com/services/ai-readiness-assessment Top stories from BetaKit A data centre superpower Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said Canada could become a global data centre “superpower” https://betakit.com/cohere-ceo-aidan-gomez-says-canada-could-become-a-data-centre-superpower/ this week, citing the country’s climate, landmass, and energy. OpenAI managing director George Osborne echoed the sentiment at ALL IN, saying Canada would be an “obvious place” https://betakit.com/openai-managing-director-says-canada-an-obvious-place-for-data-centre-development/ for his company to consider a data centre. While OpenAI doesn’t have a shovel in Canadian soil yet, Bell does. The telecom committed to quadrupling the compute capacity of its Saskatchewan data centre project https://betakit.com/bell-announces-50-billion-buildout-to-produce-canadas-largest-data-centre-in-saskatchewan/ , putting the $50-billion project on track to produce Canada’s largest data centre by wattage. The funds keep flowing There have been more fresh Canadian capital commitments since your Wednesday BetaKit Newsletter edition. Portage closed https://betakit.com/portage-closes-fourth-fintech-vc-fund-at-600-million-usd/ $600 million USD for its fourth FinTech VC fund, though CEO Adam Felesky explained to BetaKit https://betakit.com/qa-adam-felesky-on-why-canadian-fintech-is-missing-domestic-growth-capital/ that Canada still needs more firms like his to close the domestic FinTech growth capital gap. Amplify Capital secured $60 million CAD https://betakit.com/amplify-capital-prepares-to-place-more-early-stage-bets-with-60-million-third-impact-fund/ for its third impact-focused fund, which should help it write larger cheques and make “significantly more bets” in climate, health, and work technology startups. Finally, BDC also outlined how it will deploy https://betakit.com/bdc-outlines-how-it-will-deploy-1-billion-from-its-defence-platform-into-funds-and-startups/ $1 billion into Canadian and allied-nation defence funds and startups. This includes a $500-million fund-of-funds and a bump to the now-$500 million StrongNorth Fund to invest directly in defence and dual-use startups. Withstand, not weather Writing for BetaKit , Council of Canadian Innovators director of federal affairs Daniel Perry argues that the trade war with the US is forcing Canada to confront longstanding economic weakness, and that the response must make Canada stronger https://betakit.com/canada-must-build-an-economy-to-withstand-not-weather-the-trade-war/ in the long term. Canada Rocket Company rises On an otherwise unassuming industrial street in Etobicoke, the newest entrant in Canada’s space race is building the team and rocket engine it needs to reach the stars. BetaKit takes you inside the 7,400-square-foot facility where Canada Rocket Company https://betakit.com/canada-rocket-company-wants-to-build-a-sovereign-alternative-to-spacexs-falcon-9/ hopes to build a Canadian alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Sounding the Q-day alarm The Canada FinTech Forum in Montréal took an unexpectedly quantum turn https://betakit.com/why-did-quantum-leaders-sound-the-q-day-alarm-at-a-fintech-conference/ this week. The prospect of a wide-scale cybersecurity breach caused panellists like PSP Investments’ David Ouellet to argue financial firms that don’t consider quantum technology in their business plans now are “going to pay a big price in five to 10 years.” Deals and dollars Who cashed in, or out, this week: - European FinTech Wise launched https://betakit.com/wise-launches-chequing-account-for-canadians/ chequing accounts for people and businesses across Canada. - The Terry Fox Research Institute committed https://betakit.com/terry-fox-research-institute-commits-25-million-to-ai-powered-health-projects/ $25 million to 14 AI-powered health research projects. Vancouver - Tech consultancy Thin Air Labs achieved https://betakit.com/thin-air-labs-celebrates-100-million-funding-catalyst-milestone/ $100 million secured for startups through its Funding Catalyst service, reflecting more than 300 funded projects. Calgary - Cura raised https://betakit.com/cura-raises-10-million-usd-to-scale-low-carbon-cement-technology/ $10 million USD to expand its team and build a pilot plant for its low-carbon cement technology. Calgary - Indigenous tech firm Animikii and CEIMIA partnered https://betakit.com/ceimia-animikii-partner-with-manitoba-first-nation-on-stewardship-of-indigenous-data/ with Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation to explore stewardship of Indigenous data. Manitoba / Montréal - A16z Speedrun-backed Orbits secured https://betakit.com/orbits-secures-2-million-usd-to-manage-home-logistics-with-ai/ $2 million USD to manage home logistics with AI. Toronto - Wireless phone service provider TextNow celebrated https://betakit.com/textnow-celebrates-1-billion-revenue-milestone-with-public-art-in-waterloo/ its $1-billion revenue milestone with a public art installation. Waterloo Main character Last Call For Elevate Festival Tickets This week, thousands of entrepreneurs, innovators, and industry leaders across the ecosystem are coming together in the heart of Toronto. Elevate is bringing speakers you won’t want to miss including Arlene Dickinson, Vivek Sagi Bumble , Adam Collins Reddit , and Francois Chadwick Cohere to drive the conversations on trends and breakthroughs defining the future of tech and innovation. This is your final chance to secure a spot to take in three days of ideas, connections, and inspiration that could change how you strategize and build your business. Tickets are going fast. Grab yours now https://elevatefestival.ca/tickets/ BetaKit Podcast · Sept 18 “We’re focused on ‘the future of’, so that gives us a lot more liberty of the type of speakers we can book.” Elevate is the type of tech festival that plays host to everyone from Akon to Al Gore to Michelle Obama. This year, Kyle Lowry—The Greatest Raptor of All Time—will take the stage. CEO and co-founder Lisa Zarzeczny joins to share lessons learned and funny stories from a near-decade of Elevate, alongside how she has modified the program to address the pressing questions facing Canada today. Listen/Watch now › https://betakit.com/elevate-2026-betakit-podcast/ Contributors: Alex Riehl Ottawa staff writer , Douglas Soltys editor in chief , Madison McLauchlan Montréal reporter , Trevor Nichols web editor . Feature image courtesy ALL IN. Photo by Melanie Olmstead Photographe.