State-of-the-art artificial intelligence infrastructure at the University of Toronto will receive $42.5 million in federal funding to support Canadian researchers who are advancing health care, fundamental science, engineering and the humanities, among other fields.
The investment - announced Friday at U of T by Evan Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario - is funded through the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy and will be delivered via the Digital Research Alliance of Canada 's National AI Compute - Rapid Deployment initiative. The initiative aims to address the growing demand for high-performance AI computing across the country.
This expanded computing infrastructure builds on last year's $52-million upgrade to the SciNet supercomputer , housed at U of T.
"In this time of disruptive change around the world, Canada faces many key challenges and opportunities. The need to secure our global leadership in artificial intelligence as a driver of research and innovation is one of the most important," said U of T President Melanie Woodin at an event held at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus. "To meet the moment, we need to think big. We need to work together and invest strategically to build a future of hope and prosperity for all Canadians.
"This is why today, in a world increasingly driven by the power of AI, we are collaborating with colleagues in academia, industry and government to ensure that our country is ready to protect its interests and project its values.
"That's why we're so excited to build on our partnership with Minister Solomon and his department - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada - and with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada."
Solomon said the investment reflects Canada's commitment to expanding high-performance computing capacity and empowering researchers to accelerate advancements.
"This investment will support training enormous AI models at the scale of hundreds of billions of parameters and provide a secure multitenant platform for data-intensive research," he said.
Noting Canadian researchers are often forced to rely on foreign compute resources, Solomon added that it's vital to boost investment in "Canadian discovery powered by Canadian infrastructure," with a view to securing national data sovereignty and research leadership.
"The University of Toronto, working with SciNet, will operate the new system. It is just one more investment in that remarkable system … and will accelerate the work you are doing and will continue to do."
He said the U of T-housed AI compute infrastructure will serve researchers across Canada.
"This is the key … small universities will benefit; research hospitals, northern and Indigenous communities, industry partners and innovators of all sizes will benefit."
The federal investment comprises $40 million in 2025-26, followed by $2.5 million over the next two fiscal years for talent and operational costs. U of T will contribute $100,000 toward the initiative, with SciNet providing technical expertise and operational support to ensure the system adheres to environmental and operational best practices while reinforcing Canada's sovereignty, security and global competitiveness in AI.
An early leader in AI research, U of T is home to University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton - widely regarded as the "godfather of AI" - whose pioneering work on deep learning laid the foundations of today's AI revolution and earned him the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics . Several of Hinton's graduate students have also gone on to become global AI leaders, including Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded OpenAI and is co-founder and chief scientist at Safe Superintelligence.
Today, U of T researchers are developing and applying AI across disciplines - from drug discovery to climate change - while also working through organizations such as the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society to ensure advances benefit society as a whole.
By expanding Canada's AI computing capabilities, U of T and its partners are helping researchers speed up discovery, equip students with job-ready skills in machine learning and ensure Canada remains competitive on the global stage.
"We all know that the landscape of discovery is shifting at an incredible pace," said Gail Murphy, vice-chair of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. "With AI transforming every sector, our competitiveness and economic resilience now depend on a strong and sovereign digital backbone."
Murphy added that public compute and research data are "national assets" that need to be scaled up and protected.
"We know that technology moves fast. To keep Canada competitive, we all need to move just as fast. With this funding from the federal government, we can deliver AI-dedicated compute power to Canada's top minds in record time."
