TELUS and Fortanix partner to bring Confidential AI to Canada, built on NVIDIA Confidential Computing

Executive Summary

• TELUS and Fortanix announced a joint “Confidential AI” solution built on NVIDIA Confidential Computing, enabling Canadian organizations to train and deploy AI on sensitive data while it remains encrypted.
• The solution leverages TELUS’s Sovereign AI Factory infrastructure in Canada and Fortanix’s attestation‑gated secure key release technology, providing cryptographic proof of protection and compliance for regulated sectors (healthcare, finance, government).
• Availability is announced through the TELUS Sovereign AI Factory; the partnership positions both companies as leaders in secure, sovereign AI services in Canada.

Key Details

• Partnership Scope: Joint development of a Confidential AI platform that combines TELOS’s Canadian‑based AI infrastructure with Fortanix’s confidential computing security stack and NVIDIA hardware attestation services.
• Technology Highlights:
• Uses NVIDIA Confidential Computing to verify trusted execution environments (TEE) via cryptographic attestation.
• Secure key release is gated by successful attestation, ensuring data remains encrypted throughout training, fine‑tuning, and inference.
• Provides an auditable, verifiable chain of trust for models, data, and agent credentials.
• Target Industries: Healthcare, finance, government, and other regulated sectors that require strict data residency and protection during AI processing.
• Geographic Focus: Solution is hosted on TELUS’s “Sovereign AI Factory” located in Canada, guaranteeing data never leaves Canadian jurisdiction.
• Availability: The Confidential AI solution will be offered to customers via the TELUS Sovereign AI Factory on NVIDIA AI infrastructure; Fortanix supplies the attestation and secure key release components.
• Executive Comments:
• Hesham Fahmy (CIO, TELUS) highlighted the addition of a “critical, final security layer” enabling regulated organizations to deploy AI safely.
• Anuj Jaiswal (Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Fortanix) emphasized that trust must be proven through verified attestation and secure key release.
• Strategic Impact: Positions TELUS as the first provider of a fully sovereign AI infrastructure in Canada and reinforces Fortanix’s role as a leader in confidential computing for AI workloads.

Notable Quotes

“TELUS has built Canada's first fully Sovereign AI infrastructure… This latest innovation with Fortanix and NVIDIA adds a critical, final security layer to protect data while it is actively processed.” – Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer, TELUS

“Trust is not implicit – it must be proven. With verified attestation and attestation‑gated secure key release, we ensure that models, data and agents are only accessible inside approved confidential environments.” – Anuj Jaiswal, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Fortanix