The $340-million project seeks to refresh Nokia\u2019s branch plant at 600 March Rd, once the home<\/a> of Ottawa-founded telecommunications company Newbridge Networks, which ended up in Nokia\u2019s hands after a series of acquisitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what sovereign AI \u2026\u00a0 looks like in practice,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cIt means employing Canadians, building tech right here, [and] deploying the tech throughout the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Solomon\u2019s comments follow Canadian government commitments to buy Canadian<\/a> and support s<\/a>o<\/a>vereign<\/a> innovation<\/a>, with Solomon previously calling digital sovereignty \u201cthe most pressing policy and democratic issue of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n Shopify CEO Tobi L\u00fctke took to X<\/a> to voice his displeasure at the government\u2019s decision to support the Finnish firm. He called the government\u2019s involvement in the project \u201ctoxic,\u201d and argued the subsidies make labour cheaper and accrue wealth for the foreign company instead of Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201cnot good for our economy that American and [overseas] branch offices can employ Canadians at half the cost to all the [C]anadian companies around them due to these subsidies,\u201d L\u00fctke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nokia\u2019s Ottawa campus is where its fibre optic, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum-safe networking tech is developed in Canada to be deployed globally, all of which is \u201cabsolutely critical,\u201d Solomon said.<\/p>\n \u201cSovereign AI means supporting Canadian innovation, working with allies, ensuring resilience, ensuring security, and building our digital infrastructure,\u201d Solomon added, expanding the definition further. \u201cNokia delivers on every single point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lumping in Nokia as a Canadian innovation, despite its headquarters existing on the other side of the planet, has been an ongoing concern of The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), a technology-sector lobby group.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the BetaKit Podcast<\/a>, following the 2025 budget, CCI president Ben Bergen explained that any company incorporated in Canada is considered a Canadian company, even subsidiaries of multinational companies. Much like L\u00fctke, Bergen warned that spending money on those doesn\u2019t truly benefit domestic firms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following Solomon\u2019s remarks at Nokia, Bergen told BetaKit via text that \u201cThe Council of Canadian Innovators will continue to work with Minister Solomon and the federal government to make it clear that cutting a cheque to a foreign multinational is not an innovation strategy, nor does it build sovereignty for Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon has on multiple occasions acknowledged the importance of making sure Canada has a strong domestic innovation of its own, and isn\u2019t made up of foreign subsidiaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot be branch-plant nation, we gotta be AI-headquarter nation, so keeping people and our IP and our ideas here,\u201d Solomon said at the ALL IN conference in Montreal in September.<\/p>\n But while the Canadian government has committed to supporting a sovereign cloud<\/a>, which Solomon has said means Canadian control over data that is \u201cfree from coercion,\u201d he also didn\u2019t rule out American partners<\/a> as part of the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image2-5-1024x768.jpg\" "\\"image2")
<\/a>Policymakers and stakeholders break ground on Nokia\u2019s Ottawa campus expansion.<\/p>\n