Canada Declares Digital Independence, But ‘Sovereignty Is Not Solitude’

ByJohn Koetsier,

Senior Contributor.

When a single American hyperscaler can drop $100 billion on AI infrastructure in a single year, what’s a middle power supposed to do? Canada’s answer, delivered at Web Summit Vancouver this week by the country’s first-ever Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation isn’t surrender. Nor is it a moonshot attempting to match U.S. spend dollar-for-dollar.

Instead, it’s a softer declaration of digital independence, with an acknowledgment that independence doesn’t necessarily mean isolation.

"Sovereignty is not solitude," Minister Evan Solomon said in a press conference Tuesday morning at the Vancouver Convention Centre. "We are going to do business with the United States. They are our biggest customer."