TELUS, in collaboration with NVIDIA, has announced plans to build a Sovereign AI Factory, a secure facility promising to provide supercomputers and software needed to train AI, while keeping data safe within Canada’s borders.
The telco says the factory, which will leverage its high-speed fibre-optic network, will give Canadian businesses and researchers access to cutting-edge technology to develop smarter AI products, streamline operations and stay competitive.
NVIDIA’s latest Hopper- and Blackwell- based supercomputers will power the AI Factory. TELUS plans to deploy NVIDIA’s latest-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), following NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) Reference Architectures and software stack, at its data centre in Quebec by this summer, with expansion planned at its facility in B.C.
“Canada has made AI a national priority, investing in talent, research and commercialization. The TELUS Sovereign AI Factory now provides the infrastructure for this innovation to scale, empowering Canadian businesses, startups and researchers with access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure to turn their bold ideas into real-world breakthroughs — and now, they don’t have to look beyond our borders to get it,” said Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer at TELUS. “TELUS has been at the forefront of AI adoption for years, embedding it across our networks and operations to enhance services and drive efficiency. With the Sovereign AI Factory, we’re now giving our customers the accelerated computing power needed to grow, compete globally and shape the future of AI — right here in Canada. Collaborating with NVIDIA gives us the advanced computing capabilities needed to drive Canadian AI innovation while strengthening Canadian digital independence.”
“Sovereign AI infrastructure is critical for every nation to advance their society and economy, while preserving their own data, enabling them to drive a local intelligence revolution with global technology advancements,” added Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President of Telecom at NVIDIA. “TELUS is now the first North American Service Provider to become an official NVIDIA Cloud Partner, combining their advanced network and secure cloud infrastructure with the latest NVIDIA AI platforms, and empowering Canadian businesses to innovate at the pace of AI.”
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) announced $2B over five years in Budget 2024 to launch new initiatives that give Canadian researchers and AI companies the tools they need to be competitive globally, including a Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy.
TELUS says the facility will be one of the most sustainable AI-ready data centres in the world, powered by 99% renewable energy sources to deliver AI as a Service (AIaaS). In addition to a data centre design the company purports to be three times more energy efficient than the industry average, TELUS says its facilities also rely on natural cooling, cutting water consumption by more than 75% compared to traditional data centres.
The company touts itself as the first Canadian telecom to sign the Government of Canada’s voluntary AI Code of Conduct in 2023, and the first in the world to achieve a Privacy by Design certification (ISO 31700-1) for its generative AI-powered customer support tool. Additionally, TELUS has been recognized by the Responsible AI Institute for embedding ethical AI practices into its systems.
