Feds announce $66 million for 44 businesses through AI Compute Access Fund
Summary
The Government of Canada announced $66 million in the first round of its AI Compute Access Fund to support 44 small and medium-sized businesses in commercializing or scaling AI projects. The program subsidizes compute costs (50 cents on the dollar for non-Canadian compute and 67 cents for Canadian compute) and is part of a previously announced $300-million initiative. Fund recipients include companies such as SenseNet (wildfire detection) and Spare (public transit route optimization), spanning healthcare, energy, manufacturing and agriculture. Eligible applicants are Canadian-incorporated companies with fewer than 500 employees that are generating revenue or have raised Series A and have an AI commercialization plan with an existing compute agreement.