MONTRÉAL, September 16, 2026 – The AI industry in Canada has moved firmly towards the policy, commercialization and dealmaking phase, if the communications from this year’s Montréal ALL IN conference so far are any indication. AI sovereignty, regulatory oversight and stronger bridges between Canada and Europe shaped the opening day of ALL IN, with announcements spanning advanced research, computing infrastructure, enterprise security and digital health.

Yesterday’s key developments were focused on several building blocks of Canadian AI capability: investment in domestic research and infrastructure, tools to govern enterprise data use, and international partnerships supporting commercialization and scientific exchange.

Now in its fourth edition, ALL IN runs September 16–17 and wraps up today at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. Organizers expected more than 7,500 participants from over 40 countries, with Germany as this year’s country of honour. The conference brings together businesses, researchers, investors and policymakers around AI development and adoption. Event overview⁠

Canada and Germany commit up to C$300 million to LawZero

The largest research funding announcement yesterday came from Canada and Germany, which committed up to C$300 million to LawZero, the Montréal nonprofit founded by Yoshua Bengio.

The funding will support its Scientist AI research program, expansion of its scientific team, a new Berlin office and dedicated Canadian computing infrastructure developed with Hypertec and 5C. Canadian AI Minister Evan Solomon and German Minister Karsten Wildberger joined the announcement.

LawZero is developing an approach to advanced AI centred on reliability and safety, with potential applications in scientific discovery and safeguards for other AI systems. The commitment connects that research ambition to computing capacity and a stronger Canadian-European presence. LawZero announcement⁠

Cohere and Aleph Alpha advance their Canadian-German combination

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez announced a business combination agreement with Germany’s Aleph Alpha, advancing the transaction first announced in April.

The combined company would operate under the Cohere name, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin and a research centre in Heidelberg. Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close later this year.

For enterprise and government buyers, the combination would expand a Canadian-European supplier focused on the market for sovereign AI. It also brings together research talent and commercial relationships across both regions, building on Schwarz Group’s previously announced €500-million investment commitment. Deal coverage⁠

Mila and DFKI formalize research cooperation

Mila and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI, signed a memorandum of understanding covering trustworthy AI, AI safety, agentic systems and energy applications.

Mila CEO Valérie Pisano and DFKI CEO Antonio Krüger formalized the partnership in the presence of Solomon and Wildberger. The collaboration will support joint research, talent mobility and technology transfer, with potential industrial applications including smart grids, renewable-energy forecasting and energy efficiency.

The agreement adds an institutional research connection to the broader Canadian-German commercial and infrastructure relationship. Mila announcement⁠

Qohash launches enterprise AI data controls with TELUS as design partner

Canadian cybersecurity company Qohash launched Qostodian Nexus, a product designed to identify sensitive information and enforce data-handling rules as employees and AI agents interact with language models.

According to Qohash, inspection takes place within the customer’s environment, helping organizations apply controls before information reaches a model. TELUS is a design partner, contributing an enterprise operator’s perspective.

Qohash also announced a Mila partnership providing access to its research network and knowledge-sharing activities. For businesses in sectors such as finance, healthcare and defence, the launch addresses a practical requirement for AI adoption: understanding and controlling the information entering these systems. Qohash announcement⁠

Terry Fox Research Institute names teams for digital-health funding

The Terry Fox Research Institute announced 14 project teams approved under its C$25-million Digital Health Innovation Fund. Together, the projects involve 55 partners and represent C$40.9 million in total project value.

The teams bring together SMEs, academic institutions and healthcare organizations working on applications including cancer detection, diabetes care and ophthalmology. They will use the institute’s Digital Health & Discovery Platform, which TFRI says supports analysis across institutions while keeping underlying health data in place.

The announcement moves the program into funded collaboration, connecting Canadian AI businesses with research and clinical partners. A second funding competition will launch this fall. Project information⁠, coverage⁠

Solomon reinforces regulatory direction and computing plans

Solomon reaffirmed the government’s plans for a digital regulator with enforcement powers and said the organization selected to build Canada’s public AI supercomputer would be announced early this fall.

His remarks placed accountability alongside investment and adoption as priorities for Canada’s AI strategy. For businesses, the regulatory direction and forthcoming infrastructure decision will help shape both operating expectations and access to domestic computing resources, according to conference reporting⁠ from BetaKit.

Taken together, the opening-day announcements presented sovereignty as a broader capacity-building project: developing research, infrastructure, commercial suppliers and governance, while strengthening the international relationships needed to support them.

Day 2 Overview

Today’s ALL IN program builds on the opening day’s sovereignty theme, focusing on Canadian capabilities, enterprise adoption and international growth. The September 17 highlights:

• Canadian capabilities and global markets: At 2:15 p.m., leaders from Nutanix, AMD, Mozilla and ICAIN discuss building Canada’s AI stack, including control and infrastructure choices.
  
• Aidan Gomez speaks on sovereign AI at 4 p.m., followed at 4:30 pm by Evan Solomon, Joëlle Pineau, Julien Billot and RBC’s John Stackhouse on taking Canadian capabilities to international markets.
• AI safety and responsible deployment: Google DeepMind’s Tulsee Doshi discusses deploying Gemini at scale at 1 p.m. Announcement of a new initiative led by Mila and Mozilla to advance trustworthy open source AI and accelerate its adoption in Canada at 3:20 pm.
• At 2:30 pm, Yoshua Bengio presents his approach to engineering honesty and reliability, following yesterday’s LawZero funding announcement.
• Enterprise adoption and commerce: At 1:30 p.m., Mastercard, Loblaw, Coveo and Agnic.AI explore agentic commerce.
  At 2:30 p.m., OpenText, AWS and Siemens address data strategy, talent and the emerging chief AI officer role.
• Healthcare and scientific research: At 10:45 a.m., Genome Canada, Ontario Health, League and CIFAR discuss scaling AI’s value in patient care. Hugo Larochelle and Liam Fedus follow at 11:30 a.m. with a discussion of enterprise research and development.
• Physical AI and sustainability: PhysicsX, Physicl, Vention and NVIDIA at 9:30 a.m. examine AI’s expansion into the physical world. Sasha Luccioni and Boris Gamazaychikov at 9:50 a.m. address sustainability across the AI ecosystem.

Forum and Agora sessions are available live and on replay through the ALL IN app⁠.