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Canada's government launched a national AI strategy on Thursday that includes a 500 million Canadian dollar fund — equivalent to roughly US$360 million — designed to help domestic AI companies compete globally and keep Canadian talent and intellectual property anchored at home.
Structured to address what Ottawa describes as a scale-up capital gap, the Canadian Tech Growth Fund would give the federal government the ability to acquire equity positions in AI companies while channeling flexible investment support to the sector, according to The Wall Street Journal. Keeping AI talent, intellectual property, and ownership within Canada's borders is among the fund's stated objectives, alongside enabling domestic firms to compete against larger foreign rivals.
The fund is one piece of a larger initiative Prime Minister Mark Carney called "AI for All," which also includes C$700 million in new compute funding added to an existing C$300 million Compute Access Fund, C$500 million channeled through a regional AI adoption initiative, and C$200 million committed to a healthcare AI mission. The Business Development Bank of Canada will separately provide C$500 million to finance AI tool access for small and medium-sized businesses, according to Reuters.
