Ottawa to Allocate $2 Billion in Funding for Artificial Intelligence Computing Power

December 5, 2024 TruthUSA

The federal government is committing up to $1 billion to develop public computing infrastructure for the Canadian artificial intelligence sector, as part of a $2 billion commitment outlined in the recent federal budget.

An unnamed government official has disclosed that this supercomputing infrastructure will be accessible to businesses and researchers nationwide.

In the upcoming spring, the government plans to release a call for proposals for a partner to construct the infrastructure and will allocate $200 million to existing sites in Canada with publicly funded compute capacity.

Additionally, $300 million will be allocated for a fund aimed at enabling small and medium-sized Canadian businesses to purchase affordable computing power, with a launch also scheduled for spring.

A further $700 million will be contributed towards collaborative projects involving industry, academia, and other stakeholders to establish commercial AI data centers.

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