Canada’s AI Moment: Time to Bet on Our Home Team

Imagine this: Canada invents poutine, a messy combo of fries, cheese curds, and gravy, but instead of setting up roadside stands and restaurants to serve hungry locals, we sell our best cheese curds abroad. Soon enough, a foreign country (you know who) is exporting frozen “Canadian-style cheese curds” back to us at twice the price. Seems absurd, right? But when it comes to AI, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Canada didn’t just play a role in AI’s early days—we were pioneers. Researchers like Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Yann LeCun and Richard Sutton laid the very foundation for artificial intelligence breakthroughs right here on Canadian soil. Our universities produce AI talent envied worldwide, and our researchers constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Yet, despite our deep roots in AI, we’re still missing the bigger picture: building thriving Canadian companies that bring these inventions from lab to market at scale.

The Challenge of Growing AI in Canada

My path reflects Canada’s diverse and multidisciplinary approach to AI innovation. Over my career, I’ve worked on complex Canadian information management systems, tackled AI’s socioeconomic implications with the United Nations, and driven technological transformation in Canadian financial services before landing at Tenstorrent. At Tenstorrent, a proudly Canadian-founded company, we’re building high-performance AI chips and CPUs based on open standards like RISC-V. We’re committed to transparency, flexibility, and keeping control in the hands of our customers. With over 150 highly skilled engineers working in our Toronto office alone (and growing), we are proof that Canada can and does innovate on a world-class level.

But we (and other great Canadian tech companies like Untether AI, Cohere, and AMD Canada) face an uphill battle when competing at home. Too often, Canadian organizations default to familiar American giants rather than betting on local or Canadian-invested alternatives. And I’m not just talking theoretically—I’ve seen it happen myself.

Not that long ago, a large Canadian research institution reached out to us for a GPU infrastructure refresh. On paper, the request seemed open and inclusive—precisely what we’d hope to see. But digging deeper, we found embedded technical requirements that explicitly demanded a proprietary interconnect only available from Nvidia, effectively excluding any Canadian-built solutions. The result? Despite our proven capabilities, we were sidelined before we could even put our chips on the table.

This isn’t an isolated case. Too often, procurement processes inadvertently reinforce the status quo rather than opening the door to Canadian innovation. And it matters—not just symbolically, but economically. When Canadian institutions default to familiar foreign giants, we fuel a cycle that forces our innovations and talent to leave Canada to thrive elsewhere.

Urgency and Opportunity

Now, I get it: caution runs deep in our Canadian DNA. Canada’s cautious nature served us well during the 2008 financial crisis, protecting us from the recklessness seen elsewhere. But technology, especially AI, isn’t banking—it’s a rapidly moving river, and caution alone can leave us stranded on shore.

To Canada’s credit, we’re starting to recognize the urgency. Canada recently formalized a commendable initiative with the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, a $2 billion investment aimed at enhancing our AI infrastructure. This is precisely the kind of move we need. But let’s put that into perspective: the European Union is committing over €112 billion, and companies like TSMC alone are pouring upwards of $100 billion into chip infrastructure projects. Our $2 billion is a start, but let’s be honest—it’s modest compared to global leaders’ investments. Recognizing this gap is good—addressing it aggressively is even better. Right now, we’re bringing a rinky-dink Muskokan canoe to a white-water rafting competition.

If Canada doesn’t act with urgency, we’ll watch yet another revolutionary Canadian innovation become someone else’s billion-dollar empire.

Betting on Ourselves

How do we fix this? It’s not complicated, but it requires courage:

First, we need to get comfortable betting bigger on Canadian-born companies. If a company is significantly invested here, creating Canadian jobs and growing Canadian talent, we should prioritize them in procurement and investments. It isn’t protectionism; it’s smart economic policy.

Second, we must realize that commercializing our AI innovations—moving them swiftly from lab to market—is just as crucial as discovering them. We should support Canadian startups in ways that allow them to grow here, rather than pushing them toward Silicon Valley’s venture capital and markets.

Finally, let’s start embracing our multicultural strength, not just in terms of people but in terms of ideas. We already attract global talent, but too often, those brilliant minds head south for better opportunities. With AI, let’s rewrite that story—let’s create an environment so compelling that talented individuals and innovative companies want to stay right here.

Closing the Loop

Canada has everything we need to lead and win in AI. We’ve got technology, talent, ingenuity, strong values, and the beginnings of genuine government commitment. Now, we just need to stop exporting the ingredients and start serving our own poutine.

It’s time Canada bets big, bets bold—and above all, bets on itself.