Microsoft Pledges $19 Billion CAD To Supercharge Canada’s AI Economy
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Microsoft is making its largest ever commitment in Canada, outlining $19 billion CAD in spending between 2023 and 2027, with more than $7.5 billion CAD planned for the next two years. The money will go into new and expanded Azure data centre capacity in Canada Central and Canada East, with AI ready infrastructure starting to come online in 2026 to support public sector, enterprise and startup workloads on Canadian soil.
Alongside the buildout, the company is rolling out a five part digital sovereignty plan for Canada that focuses on cyber defence, keeping sensitive data in country, stronger privacy controls, support for local AI developers and guarantees around continuity of cloud services. Microsoft will open a threat intelligence hub in Ottawa and introduce new options for in country processing of Copilot and other AI services.
The investment also has a skills track. Through its Microsoft Elevate unit and partners such as Actua and nonprofit networks, the company says it will help 250,000 Canadians earn AI credentials by 2026, with a focus on workers, charities and youth, including Indigenous communities. The goal is to tie new infrastructure directly to local talent so Canadian organisations can build and run their own AI solutions on top of the expanded platform.
