Canada's fingerprints are all over the digital economy. Long before AI dominated headlines, Canadian giants such as BlackBerry and OpenText defined earlier generations of enterprise technology, while world-class research ecosystems including Mila, the Vector Institute and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute helped lay the foundations for today's AI revolution. 

That technological legacy stretches well beyond the digital age. Siemens Canada has been helping shape the country’s technological landscape since the late 19th century. President & CEO Faisal Kazi reflects: “We’ve been part of many first and key projects: the long-distance telegraph line in 1874, the first light rail system in Canada, the first long-distance telephone network, and the first stadium with a retracting roof—the Rogers Centre in Toronto. We also delivered the first pantograph charger for buses in North America, in Montreal, Quebec.”

For all that intellectual firepower, however, Canada has too often watched the companies, capital and economic value created from those breakthroughs migrate elsewhere. “The “do or die” moment is that we have every ingredient for success, but don’t always turn it into economic success,” says Neil Cawse, Founder & CEO, Geotab Inc. His point is simple: Canada produces the talent, nurtures it, then waves it out the door. “We never commercialized that opportunity. We educate people through Canada’s schools, healthcare and universities, and once they’re trained, they get snapped up by Silicon Valley and their salary doubles—they’re gone.”

Echoing these concerns, Xanadu is intent on breaking that cycle and ensuring that technology and intellectual property remain in the country. Founder & CEO Christian Weedbrook states: “We do not want to see everything we have built and patented here in Canada being moved to the U.S. or elsewhere.” And that principle can be applied across industries. As Peter Cowan, President & CEO of Innovate BC, puts it, "If companies own what they create, they retain the economic benefits that flow from it. That's especially important when discussing sovereignty, data and AI.” 

With more capital funnelling into areas like defence and semiconductor technologies, Weedbrook is confident quantum’s time has come: “It feels like we’re at the cusp of the early days of the internet, when we couldn’t even imagine the industries and opportunities that would be born thanks to this new capability.” 

Lisa Lambert, Strategic Advisor, Quantum Industry Canada, concurs; however, she stipulates that capturing economic value requires more than retention: “We need to focus on acquisition and buying technologies, not just developing them. Transformative technology doesn’t change the world when it’s invented; it changes it when it’s adopted,” she says. That philosophy is already shaping policy at a national level with Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy now identifying quantum computing, sensing and communications as sovereign capabilities, reflecting growing recognition that emerging technologies are integral to not only economic prosperity but also national security.

So why has Canada historically struggled to capture more of the value it creates? To put it simply, success breeds success. For decades, Canada lacked enough homegrown technology champions to set an example of what global scale looked like. That picture has changed dramatically over the past decade. Companies such as Shopify, Cohere and Lightspeed have become living proof of what’s possible, while stronger venture and growth capital have made it easier for founders to scale from Canada. White Star Capital cites a new generation of firms, including Vention and Flare, as evidence of Canadian AI companies building global businesses rather than selling early. The sentiment is that global reach doesn't have to mean abandoning a Canadian base. As Sébastien Bourassa, President & CEO of homegrown global accessibility company Savaria, explains: “Canada is a good platform, but growth comes from markets like Australia, Europe, and the U.S. For example, Australia has a similar culture, making it easier to grow there. So we use Canada as a base but operate increasingly as a global company.”

That message is beginning to resonate with investors too. Despite tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty, deal activity has remained resilient, according to Kalos LLP, whose transactions are roughly split between Western Canada, Eastern Canada and the U.S. Co-Founder & Managing Partner Mackenzie Regent says most long-term investors are looking well beyond political cycles, taking a seven-to-ten-year view: “We have seen some U.S. funds look to Canada because their domestic market has become increasingly competitive when it comes to sourcing and winning deals. Interest from Europe has also accelerated, with various funds preferring to deploy North American allocations through Canada rather than the U.S. There has always been interest, but now there is greater impetus to act and diversify.” 

As investment gathers pace, attention is also turning to the rules that will govern the technologies themselves. With AI becoming ubiquitous across almost every facet of society, the debate has hardened into opposing camps. One warns that overly zealous, luddite regulation could suffocate innovation before its benefits are fully realized. The other argues the technology poses profound societal, economic and even existential risks that demand far stronger safeguards. While the U.S. frames AI around market growth and commercial opportunity, Europe has adopted a more prescriptive approach. Canada, reflecting its own values while remaining closely tied to its largest market, serves as a bridge between the two.

Of course, the concerns on both sides are not without merit. As Jean-Francois Marcoux, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, White Star Capital, puts it: “One concern is ensuring regulation does not become too restrictive, particularly around AI. I'm supportive of safety and privacy, but regulation should not limit adoption. If Canada becomes overly restrictive while other countries move aggressively, we risk missing a major opportunity to improve productivity.”

Interestingly, standards themselves have become another frontier of technological competition. Since Canada has named diversification and open access to global markets as a priority, Chantal Guay, CEO of Standards Council of Canada, argues that countries hoping to compete globally cannot afford to think only about IP; they also need a seat at the table where the rules are written: “Countries that don’t participate in those conversations risk losing influence and market access. Many companies think about IP from the beginning, but not always about standardization. They protect their IP, develop a great idea, and later realize they need to comply with standards to enter a market. Ideally, you think about both from the outset.”