Canada's Sovereign AI Platform for Scientific Discovery
Accelerating Research from Permafrost to Fusion
NORAI integrates Canada's national scientific datasets, research laboratories, and high-performance computing infrastructure into a unified, secure platform, enabling breakthrough discoveries while maintaining complete data sovereignty.
The Strategic Imperative
Closing the AI Infrastructure Gap
The U.S. DOE Genesis initiative has committed $3B+ and 200 MW of dedicated compute capacity for 2026–2030
China's 'New Generation AI 2030' operates three integrated closed-loop science platforms with full data sovereignty
Canadian researchers currently spend 40–60% of their time on data acquisition and preparation rather than discovery
Without a national platform, Canada risks losing research talent and competitive advantage in critical sectors
NORAI provides the infrastructure to close this gap within 24 months.
The Strategic Imperative
Visual data demonstrating why Canada needs sovereign AI infrastructure
The Competitiveness Gap
Without NORAI, Canada risks losing 40% of AI researchers to countries with better infrastructure. The $1.4B investment generates $33B in value while retaining Canadian talent.
Strategic Research Initiatives
Demonstrated Impact Across Critical Sectors
PermafrostGPT
Natural Resources Canada, GNWT, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
High-resolution predictive modeling for northern infrastructure resilience. Machine learning models trained on 40+ years of ground temperature data to forecast permafrost degradation at 1-km resolution.
Projected savings: $8–12B in infrastructure protection across NWT and Yukon
MapleFusion
General Fusion, Kyoto Fusor, National Research Council
Accelerated materials discovery for fusion reactor components. AI-driven simulation reduces magnet and plasma-facing material design cycles from 5 years to 6 months.
Enabling pathway to commercial fusion by 2035
Pan-Canadian Cancer Moonshot
CIHR, BC Cancer Agency, Ontario Health
Federated learning across provincial cancer registries while maintaining strict data governance. Privacy-preserving AI identifies novel immunotherapy targets without centralizing patient data.
3 novel therapeutic targets identified; $2B+ projected healthcare savings
Critical Minerals Initiative
Natural Resources Canada, Indigenous Resource Network
AI-powered geological analysis combining satellite imagery, geophysical surveys, and historical data to identify economically viable rare earth and lithium deposits.
10 new deposit candidates; $15B+ potential export revenue
Borealis Climate Twin
Environment and Climate Change Canada, Polar Continental Shelf Program
Digital twin of Canada's Arctic and boreal ecosystems. Daily 1-km resolution forecasts for sea ice extent, wildfire risk, and ecosystem changes through 2035.
$5B+ annual reduction in climate-related disaster costs
Platform Architecture
Five Integrated Layers for Sovereign AI
National Semantic Layer
Enterprise knowledge graph with 50M+ scientific entities. Multilingual support (EN/FR/Inuktitut) with standardized ontologies across all federal research agencies.
Federated Data Lakehouse
Distributed sovereign object storage across four geographic zones (Montréal–Toronto–Edmonton–Yellowknife). CCORE-compliant with automatic data residency enforcement.
Secure Multi-Party Compute
Privacy-preserving computation using OpenMPC protocols. SCION-based secure networking with consent-as-code governance tokens for granular access control.
Borealis Model Family
Science-specialized foundation models (8B → 70B → 671B parameters). Continual pre-training exclusively on Canadian scientific literature and datasets.
NORAI Studio
End-to-end research automation interface. Natural language to experiment design to robotic laboratory execution with full provenance tracking.
Canadian AI Ecosystem
Building a National Network for Scientific AI
NORAI brings together Canada's leading AI institutions, world-class universities, and innovative companies to create an integrated research ecosystem.
National AI Institutes
ProposedCanada's three national AI institutes would provide foundational research capabilities and talent pipelines.
MILA
Deep learning and reinforcement learning research
Vector Institute
Machine learning and AI applications in healthcare
Amii
Machine learning fundamentals and industry partnerships
Research Universities
ProposedLeading Canadian universities would contribute domain expertise and next-generation talent.
University of Waterloo
Quantum computing, cybersecurity, and AI systems
University of Toronto
Computer science, medical AI, and robotics
McGill University
Neuroscience-inspired AI and climate modeling
University of Alberta
Reinforcement learning and natural language processing
University of British Columbia
Computer vision and sustainable AI
National Compute Infrastructure
ProposedCanada's national high-performance computing network would provide the computational backbone for AI workloads.
Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Formerly Compute Canada – national HPC coordination and advanced research computing
Compute Ontario
Regional HPC consortium serving Ontario's research community
Calcul Québec
Advanced computing services for Québec institutions
ACENET
High-performance computing for Atlantic Canada
WestGrid/BC DRI
HPC resources serving Western Canadian researchers
Federal Research Organizations
ProposedNational laboratories and agencies would provide critical infrastructure and domain datasets.
National Research Council
Applied research and technology transfer
Natural Resources Canada
Geological surveys and climate data
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Weather modeling and environmental monitoring
Canadian Space Agency
Earth observation and satellite data
Canadian Technology Companies
ProposedCanadian companies across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, quantum, and health tech sectors creating a Made-in-Canada technology ecosystem.
Shopify
E-commerce platform and AI-powered commerce tools
OpenText
Enterprise information management and AI
CGI Group
IT consulting and systems integration
Thomson Reuters
AI for legal, tax, and news content
Cohere
Enterprise AI and large language models
Xanadu
Quantum computing and photonic systems
D-Wave
Quantum computing systems and software
BlackBerry/Cylance
AI-powered cybersecurity solutions
MDA
Space technology and earth observation
OVHcloud
Canadian sovereign cloud infrastructure
Lightspeed Commerce
Commerce platform and point-of-sale systems
Kinaxis
AI-powered supply chain management
Coveo
AI-powered enterprise search
CAE
AI simulation and training systems
Descartes Systems
Logistics and supply chain technology
Sanctuary AI
General-purpose humanoid robots
Semanttica Web Technologies (SWT)
Knowledge graphs and semantic AI infrastructure
Join the ecosystem
Canadian companies building sovereign AI
Join the Ecosystem
We're actively seeking partnerships with research institutions, government agencies, startups, and established companies.
Join the Mission
Help build Canada's sovereign AI infrastructure for scientific discovery. We're actively seeking partnerships with research institutions, government agencies, and industry leaders.