ANALYSIS | Canada's Sovereign AI Push Comes Down to a Harder Question: Who Controls the Data?

BC’s new data centre cluster sparks new discussion of ‘sovereign’ AI push

TELUS is pushing ahead with plans for a major AI data-centre cluster in British Columbia after being selected under Ottawa’s large-scale AI data-centre initiative. But the project is raising questions about who will ultimately control that infrastructure and whether BC’s…

ANALYSIS | Canada's sovereign AI push comes down to a harder question: who controls the data?

Canada wants to build data centres that are not just physically located here, but controlled here — a distinction experts say could determine whether the country can reduce its dependence on U.S. tech giants and keep Canadian data subject to Canadian rules.

BC's new data centre cluster sparks new discussion of 'sovereign' AI push

Putting a data centre in Canada does not automatically mean Canada controls it. The servers may be inside Canada but the technology, software, customers or parent companies behind the project could still be foreign.