Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Queen’s University are partnering to design and build a national sovereign, secure and sustainable high-performance supercomputing system that will keep Canadian data and intellectual property in Canadian hands.
The two universities have signed a memorandum of understanding, seizing the opportunity to combine unrivalled national expertise to provide world-leading high-performance computing and services for academia, government, and industry.
Artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers are the powerful engines that train AI models, analyze massive amounts of information, and support innovations in areas such as health care, clean energy, defence, manufacturing, dual-use technology and public safety. As demand for AI grows, so does the need for strong computing infrastructure that keeps data secure and ensures it stays within Canadian borders.
“By partnering with Queen’s, we’re bringing together the expertise, talent, and the national-scale facilities needed for a sovereign platform that Canadians can trust,” says Dugan O’Neil, vice-president, research & innovation. “This collaboration strengthens our research community, supports industry innovation, and helps ensure Canada remains competitive in a rapidly evolving global landscape.”
SFU and Queen’s bring deep, complementary experience to this work. Both universities currently operate trusted public high-performance computing platforms that support some of Canada’s most advanced AI projects, including those focused on critical infrastructure, life sciences, and next‑generation technologies.
“Canada needs secure, world‑class computing infrastructure to lead in the next generation of artificial intelligence.”
-Dugan O’Neil, vice-president, research & innovation, SFU
SFU is a world leader in supercomputing and AI research, operating Canada’s largest public supercomputing system that supports more than 24,000 researchers and industry partners nationwide.
The university also has agreements in place with companies across Canada—including Hypertec, Cerio, Corix, and Moment Energy—to help meet future supercomputing infrastructure needs. For the past five years, SFU has been ranked as Canada’s top university in the World Universities Ranking for Innovation (WURI), reflecting its leadership in AI, quantum technologies, and climate change‑related research, and in the top five in Canada for AI, with more than 100 researchers focused on AI solutions.
Queen’s is the only university in Canada home to researchers who have helped design and deploy some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, including systems ranked among the global top 10 in the United States, Europe and Asia.
“Queen’s is pleased to partner with Simon Fraser University to help strengthen Canada’s sovereign, sustainable AI supercomputing capacity,” Nancy Ross, vice-principal, research, Queen’s University. “This collaboration, which brings together complementary expertise in high-performance computing and AI, will help cultivate talent and train the next generation of Canadian experts.
“As we have seen from global leaders in the space, advanced computing infrastructure that is partnered with research and academia will strengthen Canada’s economic competitiveness, enable breakthrough research at scale, safeguard digital sovereignty, and ensure we have the infrastructure needed to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world.”
The two universities will also work with national industry partners, including Bell Canada.
Bell will support the build of the supercomputing facility in Kingston, Ontario, while Queen’s will design, build and operate the supercomputer. Bell will also support building additional resourcing and capacity in B.C. Both sites will enable groundbreaking research and technological advances in key industries and areas of national focus, including AI and defence.
“Bell is proud to support Canada’s leading research institutions by providing the infrastructure needed to operate at national scale. Collaboration between universities like Queen’s and Simon Fraser University plays an important role in strengthening Canada’s AI ecosystem — enabling shared research, talent development, and innovation that benefits research, industry, and the country as a whole,” says Dan Rink, president, Bell AI Fabric.
This collaboration aligns with the Government of Canada’s Sovereign AI Compute strategy to build a state-of-the-art, public supercomputing infrastructure and mobilize private sector investment. As part of the strategy, Canada is investing in a new AI supercomputing system through the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program. SFU and Queen’s plan to jointly apply to the program, which is expected to launch in 2026.
“The Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy is an enormous opportunity to create the future of world-class supercomputing infrastructure here in Canada,” says James Peltier, director, Research Computing at SFU. “By partnering with our colleagues at Queen’s, we can bring together deep expertise in high performance computing with secure, deployment-ready sites to support a truly national resource. This AI infrastructure will help researchers tackle important challenges, from personalized medicine and health outcomes to green technologies to help fight climate change.”
Together, this partnership between SFU and Queen’s aims to accelerate Canada’s leadership in AI, attract global talent, strengthen national digital sovereignty, and ensure Canadian researchers and businesses have the tools they need to compete globally.