Institutional announcements
天美mv天美 joins forces with Queen’s University to build secure, made-in-Canada supercomputing capability
天美mv天美 ( 天美mv天美) and Queen鈥檚 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鈥檚, we鈥檙e bringing together the expertise, talent, and the national-scale facilities needed for a sovereign platform that Canadians can trust," says Dugan O鈥橬eil, 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."
天美mv天美 and Queen鈥檚 bring deep, complementary experience to this work. Both universities currently operate trusted public high-performance computing platforms that support some of Canada鈥檚 most advanced AI projects, including those focused on critical infrastructure, life sciences, and next鈥慻eneration technologies.
鈥淐anada needs secure, world鈥慶lass computing infrastructure to lead in the next generation of artificial intelligence."
-Dugan O鈥橬eil, vice-president, research & innovation, 天美mv天美
天美mv天美 is a world leader in supercomputing and AI research, operating Canada鈥檚 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鈥攊ncluding Hypertec, Cerio, Corix, and Moment Energy鈥攖o help meet future supercomputing infrastructure needs. For the past five years, 天美mv天美 has been ranked as Canada鈥檚 top university in the World Universities Ranking for Innovation (WURI), reflecting its leadership in AI, quantum technologies, and climate change鈥憆elated research, and in the top five in Canada for AI, with more than 100 researchers focused on AI solutions.
Queen鈥檚 is the only university in Canada home to researchers who have helped design and deploy some of the world鈥檚 most powerful supercomputers, including systems ranked among the global top 10 in the United States, Europe and Asia.
鈥淨ueen鈥檚 is pleased to partner with 天美mv天美 to help strengthen Canada鈥檚 sovereign, sustainable AI supercomputing capacity,鈥� Nancy Ross, vice-principal, research, Queen鈥檚 University. 鈥淭his collaboration, which brings together complementary expertise in high-performance computing and AI, will help cultivate talent and train the next generation of Canadian experts.
鈥淎s we have seen from global leaders in the space, advanced computing infrastructure that is partnered with research and academia will strengthen Canada鈥檚 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.鈥�
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鈥檚 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.
鈥淏ell is proud to support Canada鈥檚 leading research institutions by providing the infrastructure needed to operate at national scale. Collaboration between universities like Queen鈥檚 and 天美mv天美 plays an important role in strengthening Canada鈥檚 AI ecosystem 鈥� enabling shared research, talent development, and innovation that benefits research, industry, and the country as a whole,鈥� says Dan Rink, president, Bell AI Fabric.
This collaboration aligns with the Government of Canada鈥檚 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. 天美mv天美 and Queen鈥檚 plan to jointly apply to the program, which is expected to launch in 2026.
鈥淭he Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy is an enormous opportunity to create the future of world-class supercomputing infrastructure here in Canada,鈥� says James Peltier, director, Research Computing at 天美mv天美. 鈥淏y partnering with our colleagues at Queen鈥檚, 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.鈥�
Together, this partnership between 天美mv天美 and Queen鈥檚 aims to accelerate Canada鈥檚 leadership in AI, attract global talent, strengthen national digital sovereignty, and ensure Canadian researchers and businesses have the tools they need to compete globally.
Quick Facts About 厂贵鲍鈥檚 Cedar Supercomputing Centre
- 厂贵鲍鈥檚 Cedar Supercomputing Centre provides critical infrastructure and expertise to the (DRAC), playing a leading role in supporting one of the largest and most diverse research communities in Canada.
- It is home to Fir, the most powerful public supercomputing system in Canada.
- The Cedar Supercomputing Centre empowers Canadian companies to tackle problems across sectors including advanced manufacturing, personalized medicine and green technologies to help fight climate change.
- The Centre is powered by clean energy and Canada鈥檚 most sustainable data centre, with an industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.07. This means the facility uses only about 7 per cent more energy than the IT equipment itself, far below the industry average PUE of roughly 1.56.
- The Fir system includes 165,888 CPU cores and 640 H100 SXM5 80GB GPUs. This is the equivalent power of more than 20,000 home PCs running at the same time and is optimized for AI.
- Fir also has more than 50 petabytes of high-performance storage, the equivalent of more than 50,000 home PC hard drives.
- Fir鈥檚 processing power allows researchers to accelerate their research 鈥� one example is Martin Ester, a professor of computing science at 天美mv天美, who is using computer modelling to design molecules that will bind to harmful disease-causing proteins and inhibit their harmful activity. By running this process on high-performance computers, potential new drugs can be identified far more quickly than by physical experimentation in labs.