Many modern hardware companies design their products in-house but outsource production to a dedicated manufacturer. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), set up in 1987 with the support from the Taiwan government, is by far the largest<\/a> of those so-called \u201cfoundries.\u201d<\/p>\n Talking Points<\/p>\n Tech executives are calling for the National Research Council of Canada to spin out its Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre so it can use private funding to increase capacity and develop new capabilities The Ottawa facility could be for compound semiconductors what TSMC has become for silicon-based chips, according to some prominent Canadian tech leaders. But to do that, they say, it needs to be outside the government, either as a private company or a Crown corporation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an incredible opportunity for Canada right now to be the world leader in photonics for computing,\u201d said Joe Costello, CEO of Ottawa-based startup Inpho. The company builds components out of indium phosphide that convert light-based signals to electrical ones inside data centres\u2019 networking hardware, and uses the CPFC to manufacture its products.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the CPFC suits Inpho\u2019s needs at the moment, with the AI boom, Costello estimates that the plant won\u2019t have the capacity to fulfil his customers\u2019 orders within two years. And he doesn\u2019t think it can expand to meet that demand in its current state. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the flexibility, agility and the ability to invest,\u201d Costello said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n \t \t Cyril McKelvie, a member of the CPFC\u2019s advisory board, said the plant has previously lost major customers because of a lack of capacity. He leads the Ottawa-based photonics unit at Jabil, a Florida-headquartered contract manufacturing giant, to which the CPFC is a supplier.<\/p>\n Ottawa-based Ranovus currently buys lasers from the CPFC for its optical connectors, which move<\/a> information between chips in data centres. The facility can\u2019t offer the same contract terms that a purely commercial plant can, making it less attractive to customers, said Ranovus CEO Hamid Arabzadeh. Being inside the government is \u201ca growth inhibitor\u201d for the CPFC, he said.<\/p>\n Spinning the CPFC out with private-sector backers could address those issues and take advantage of new demand created by the ChatGPT boom, the executives say. The facility is \u201ca light bulb for AI,\u201d Arabzadeh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The National Research Council of Canada, which runs the CPFC, has acknowledged the industry push. This spring, it hired PwC to do a valuation and \u201creview governance options\u201d for the plant, said Julie Lefebvre, the council\u2019s vice-president of emerging technologies.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The council declined to directly say whether it\u2019s considering spinning out or privatizing CPFC, which currently has about 80 staff. Lefebvre said the review\u2019s goals include expanding Canadian photonics manufacturing capacity, as well as bolstering the country\u2019s hardware supply chain to support homegrown firms, train workers and create jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The council opened<\/a> the CPFC in May 2005, buying<\/a> much of its equipment and infrastructure from telecom manufacturer Nortel, which was then headed for bankruptcy. The federal government has put in<\/a> some capital funding over the years, including $90 million in February 2022 during a push<\/a> to participate in U.S. semiconductor supply chains. That money helped pay<\/a> for a new building and reactors.<\/p>\n Tech executives say that to seize the AI opportunity, the CPFC will need a lot more money and capacity, which only the private sector can provide. \u201cThe government\u2019s job is not to fund a commercial venture like that,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n Private equity firms have expressed interest in investing in the CPFC, according to Costello and McKelvie. Both said Canadian investors and the government should retain a majority stake in the facility between them. To attract bids, McKelvie said Ottawa must first disclose more about the CPFC\u2019s assets and revenues, and clarify whether it plans to divest it as a private firm or not-for-profit, or set it up as a Crown corporation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hardware firms have been pushing for the federal government to spin CPFC out for several years, but the executives say Ottawa needs to make a quick decision to take advantage of the AI opportunity. \u201cIf you want to have your TSMC moment, now\u2019s the time to do it,\u201d said McKelvie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian tech executives are pushing the federal government to privatize or spin out a National Research Council plant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,78044,17110,78045,78046,78047,78048,36103,61],"class_list":["post-146023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-photonics-fabrication-centre","tag-data-centres","tag-inpho","tag-jabil","tag-national-research-council","tag-ranovus","tag-semiconductors","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Ottawa-based centre is one of only three independent fabrication facilities in the world that manufacture compound semiconductors, which are used in the light-based connectors that move information in data centres<\/p>\n
\n\t![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Teledyne_plant-Bromont_Quebec-Roger_Lemoyne_The_Logic-1920x1280-1-768x512.jpeg\")
\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t![\"Ranovus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ranovus_Hamid_Arabzadeh-Ottawa-2025-Justin_Tang-The_Logic-1920x1280-1-768x512.jpeg\")
\t<\/a><\/p>\n