Tech Update: Federal funding for supercomputing infrastructure

Last week, the federal government laid out how it plans to spend the $2 billion earmarked for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power. The hope is that this funding will help Canada catch up to its peers: according to a trend report published by data-management platform WEKA earlier this year based on research from S&P Global Market Intelligence, only 35 per cent of Canadian organizations have “widely implemented” AI. Computing capacity plays a significant role in this lag. While Canada does have some supercomputers, most of those are dedicated to research, rather than industry. This deficit is hampering the country’s innovation capabilities.

In an effort to remedy this situation, the government is allocating $1 billion for public infrastructure, which includes the establishment of a supercomputing facility for researchers and companies as well as a smaller facility led by Shared Services Canada and the National Research Council of Canada. The government plans to spend $700 million to build out commercial AI data centres across the country. The final $300 million will go toward providing affordable access to computing power to small- and medium-sized businesses.