Bell AI Fabric, Cohere, Hypertec and BUZZ HPC announce landmark deal to advance sovereign AI in Canada

Executive Summary

• Bell AI Fabric, Cohere, Hypertec, and BUZZ HPC announced a strategic collaboration to develop and deploy sovereign AI infrastructure in Canada.
• The partnership leverages Bell's data centre and connectivity in Merritt, BC, BUZZ HPC's GPU compute and cloud layer, Hypertec's Canadian-built hardware, and Cohere's enterprise-grade AI models.
• The initiative aims to support Canadian government and enterprise customers with secure, high-performance AI workloads while reinforcing national digital sovereignty and economic resilience.

Key Details

• Parties Involved: Bell AI Fabric, Cohere, Hypertec, and BUZZ HPC (a subsidiary of Hive Digital Technologies).
• Infrastructure & Location: Collaboration centers on Bell's purpose-built data centre and connectivity services in Merritt, British Columbia.
• Technology Stack: Utilizes NVIDIA's DSX AI factory platform, Hypertec's Canadian-manufactured hardware clusters, BUZZ HPC's AI-native cloud layer, and Cohere's secure enterprise-grade foundation models.
• Strategic Objective: Enable Canadian government and enterprise customers to conduct R&D and deploy production-grade AI workloads on sovereign Canadian infrastructure, ensuring data control, security, and performance.
• Ecosystem Context: Builds upon previously announced partnerships and reinforces the Canadian Sovereign AI Alliance, addressing the industry gap between AI experimentation and large-scale deployment.
• Government Endorsement: Supported by The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, highlighting national economic and innovation priorities.

Notable Quotes

• Michel Richer, President, Bell AI Fabric: "Canada has the talent and innovation to lead in AI - what's been missing is the ambition to bring the right ingredients together. This landmark deal helps close that gap. Through our partnership, Cohere will operate its AI models in Bell AI Fabric infrastructure, enabled by the combined capabilities of Hypertec and BUZZ HPC. This agreement underscores the role Bell AI Fabric is playing in helping organizations move from experimentation to production on infrastructure that is located, operated and governed in Canada."
• Michael Pelosi, Country Manager, Canada, Cohere: "For enterprises and governments, adopting AI is not just about having access to powerful models. It's about knowing where those models run, how data is protected and whether the technology can be deployed with the security and reliability their work requires. This collaboration gives Cohere another way to support customers in Canada with advanced AI that is built for real use, on infrastructure that reflects Canadian priorities."
• Craig Tavares, President and COO, BUZZ HPC: "AI does not scale on ideas alone, it scales on data centres, specialized GPU compute, sophisticated models and operational execution. This partnership brings together a combination of capabilities that does not exist anywhere else in Canada today: Bell's national platform, Cohere's world-class enterprise AI models, Hypertec's Canadian-built GPU servers, and BUZZ's AI factory expertise and sovereign AI cloud powered by NVIDIA's full-stack AI factory platform. The early momentum behind this partnership has been overwhelming because it solves a real national gap: giving Canada the sovereign AI infrastructure required to turn ambition into impact."