Microsoft-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT) OpenAI (OPENAI) is considering expanding its footprint in Canada, either through building artificial intelligence infrastructure or purchasing capacity there, according to The Globe and Mail.
“It is about being a true, real partner here on the ground in Canada,” said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs,” according to the report. “That could be a full-stack infrastructure. It could be doing some version of committing to buying compute. It could be helping to support specific government programs.”
Lehane was in Toronto this week, meeting with public officials and private companies to discuss how OpenAI can help Canada develop its AI infrastructure. However, the Canadian government has stressed the importance of supporting domestic AI companies. For example, Ottowa recently entered into an agreement with Cohere to explore the deployment of AI in the public sector, the report said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also stressed the importance of a sovereign cloud initiative.
Lehane said building sovereign AI is important, but OpenAI can help spark such development.
In May, the San Francisco-based startup launched OpenAI for Countries, an initiative to help democratic allies around the globe jumpstart AI goals and build data center capacity. In July, OpenAI announced Stargate Norway, its first AI data center initiative in Europe. In the same month, it signed a strategic partnership with the U.K. government to help the country attract more private investment into its artificial intelligence sector. It is also developing data center capacity in the United Arab Emirates with Oracle (ORCL), SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY)(OTCPK:SFTBF) and G42.
OpenAI has monumental, multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnerships in place with chipmakers Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) to provide the processing power needed to run such facilities.