When you think of Canada, you may not think of it as an AI powerhouse. Yet, it’s home to renowned AI experts and hosts R&D labs for some of the biggest brands, research institutions and universities.
Similarly, when you think of AI, you may not think of physical infrastructure like servers, cables, power and cooling. Yet, this equipment is essential to meet AI’s significant compute power, storage and networking needs, as are the skilled technicians who design, build and keep data centers up and running continuously. Canada is home to both.
This blog is the fourth in a series about how physical infrastructure and people are foundational to powering the digital economy and ushering us into the Intelligent Age. Yet, both are largely invisible, operating behind the scenes. We’ve looked at what makes connected cities such as Washington, DC and Culpeper, VA, Sydney and Melbourne, London and Manchester, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and Milan ideal for hosting colocation data centers and staffing them with highly skilled technical workers.
Canada is another such place. While not the largest country by land or population, its digital economy is thriving due to the rapid adoption of e-commerce, investments in AI and expanded digital payment solutions. Major players from various industries are contributing to this growth, along with government efforts to facilitate digital skills training and support startups.
The two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal, host companies from diverse industries ranging from IT services and software development to fintech, cybersecurity and food processing. The higher-education systems in both cities are extensive and include world-class institutions that produce a steady stream of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates into Canada’s fast-growing tech talent pool.
Canada’s distinct advantages make it an ideal place to do business
Canadian residents are digitally savvy, with an exceptionally high percentage of the population of nearly 40 million reporting active cellular mobile connections (104%), internet usage (95.2%) and social media user identities (just under 80%), in 2025.[1] It’s a solid foundation for a thriving digital economy.
The government started early to prioritize driving digital transformation and building a foundation for AI. In 2017, they announced the $94.3 million Pan-Canadian AI Strategy to attract and retain leading AI researchers and strengthen the country’s AI centers of excellence. As a result, the government established the country’s three National AI Institutes—Vector Institute (Toronto), Amii (Edmonton) and Mila (Montreal). Canada launched a second phase of investments in 2022 with a planned ten-year rollout of $346.3 million.
In 2024, the country announced a $1.7 billion investment in AI as part of its annual federal budget, and is collaborating with various infrastructure providers, including Equinix, to determine how to allocate those funds. They are committed to ensuring the country is in the best possible state to integrate AI capabilities, with infrastructure including power, energy, data centers and research labs.
Major international companies have established R&D labs and innovation centers in Canada to take advantage of its deep pool of knowledge, while numerous homegrown tech companies are creating innovative AI solutions. The Forbes 2024 Global 2000 list included 59 Canadian companies across industries such as financial services, energy, transportation, retail, telecommunications, technology and healthcare.
Toronto: Financial services hub and tech capital
As Canada’s largest city, Toronto’s business culture is diverse, fast-paced and internationally focused. Financial services is the largest private-sector contributor to GDP in Toronto, the second largest in Ontario and the third largest in Canada.[2] It hosts the second-largest financial center in North America, including major banks and the Toronto Stock Exchange, and ranks as one of the world’s most important financial services hubs. Further, its proximity to major U.S. markets like New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC, attracts domestic and international financial services companies to establish locations in the city.
Beyond financial services, Toronto hosts businesses from most major industrial sectors, spanning technology, life sciences, green energy, fashion and design, food and beverage, film and television production, music and digital media. What stands out is the cross-pollination happening between certain industries, leading to the creation of hybrid sectors like medtech, green tech and food tech.
Toronto’s tech ecosystem is dynamic and thriving, with a concentration of startups and tech companies in two areas of the greater metro area:
- MaRS Discovery District is one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs, known for making crucial resources and networking opportunities available to companies in this section of Toronto.
- Toronto-Waterloo Regional Corridor (Tech Triangle) encompasses cities like Waterloo and Kitchener and is home to many innovative companies participating in the tech ecosystem.
York University, the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University produce a continuous flow of graduates in STEM fields. Researchers at local universities are also gaining notoriety. For instance, Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto has been called “the Godfather of AI.” His research in AI is credited with turning the city into a global AI hub. Additionally, global companies with established research partnerships and labs have established a presence in the city, further contributing to AI and tech innovation that leads to business growth and job creation.
Together, these factors have made a significant impact on the city. Between 2018 and 2023, Toronto added 95,900 tech jobs, representing a 44% growth rate, the most significant job gains in North American markets during that period.[3]
Montreal: an AI powerhouse and tech center
As Canada’s second-largest city, Montreal is a cosmopolitan and fully bilingual city, with a collaborative, creative and open business culture. Like Toronto, its tech ecosystem is mature, diverse and globally connected. Sectors represented in Montreal include aerospace, life sciences and health technologies, IT services and software development, gaming, visual effects and animation, clean tech, fintech, cybersecurity, electric and smart transportation, and food processing.
AI touches most, if not all, of these sectors in one way or another. The Canadian government chose Montreal as its headquarters for SCALE AI, Canada’s AI supply chain supercluster, which focuses on accelerating AI application development. Many leading technology companies have invested in Montreal’s AI industry by establishing research labs and staffing them with highly skilled tech professionals from the city’s exceptional talent pool.
World-renowned experts such as Yoshua Bengio, Joelle Pineau, Hugo Larochelle and Irina Rish live in the Montreal metro area and work at local research labs or well-funded world-class institutions. The Canada First Research Excellence Fund granted $64.6 million to McGill University and $71.9 million to Université de Montréal to support their AI-related research.
Data centers power Canada’s evolving tech landscape
Canada will continue establishing itself as a global tech leader with ongoing investment in infrastructure, education and innovation. Montreal and Toronto will play pivotal roles in shaping the Intelligent Age, with ongoing tech innovation, AI research and STEM education. Startups and other companies in the local tech and AI ecosystems will expand regionally and globally, attracting global businesses to establish a presence in these markets.
Digital infrastructure, including colocation data centers and digital services, will become even more essential to support this expanding market activity. It will also be essential to meet the country’s growing data storage, processing and motion requirements. Enterprises, cloud and network service providers, and industry partners will all require points of presence to connect and interact with each other in an interconnected community.
Skilled workers will continue to be in high demand, as companies like Equinix expand capacity with new data centers to support the digital economy and Intelligent Age. That’s why we actively seek opportunities to partner with local organizations like the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals in Toronto. Its digital skills and emerging technologies curriculum provides students with a comprehensive introduction to skills, including coding, graphic design, AI, and other emerging technologies. Beyond financial support from employees via our WeGive program, our Talent Acquisition Team is working with the CEE Centre to create internship opportunities and early-career roles for students who may not have traditionally considered careers in the data center industry.
There are five Equinix IBX® colocation data centers in Toronto and two in Montreal, each of which is interconnected with our network of data centers in 70+ key markets in 34 countries. The Toronto data centers connect customers to one of the most robust trading ecosystems in Canada and host Toronto’s largest interconnected community of clouds, network service providers and enterprises. With direct access to the Toronto Internet Exchange (TorIX), businesses can interconnect directly with customers and partners in their digital supply chain.
The Montreal data centers are emerging as a cloud hub and are home to Canada’s second-largest peering center. Customers here can connect to robust service provider and business ecosystems, including a wide range of network service providers and all the major cloud providers via our cloud on-ramps.
With a future that’s clearly defined by AI, moving to sustainable, high-performance data centers staffed by technical experts will help future-proof your business. Learn more about the advantages of building an AI-driven data strategy in Equinix data centers. Download our infographic, Shape your future with AI-ready infrastructure.
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To learn more about how AI-ready data centers can support your AI journey, watch our Tech Talk, Why You Need a High-Performance Data Center that’s AI-Ready.
[1] Digital 2025: Canada, Global Digital Insights, DataReportal
[2] The Impact of Toronto’s Financial Sector, The Conference Board of Canada
[3] Toronto Reclaims #4 Spot in CBRE’s Latest North American Tech Talent Ranking, CBRE Canada, September 4, 2024
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