A Vancouver-based artificial intelligence company says it is turning away from opportunities with the U.S. government as tensions between Canada and the United States raise questions about Canada’s reliance on its southern neighbour for AI investment and infrastructure.
Caseway, which develops AI tools for applications including legal and defence-related work, says it is instead focusing on Canadian defence and seeking opportunities in markets such as Europe and Taiwan.
“I’m not comfortable going in and helping the U.S. with their AI needs at the same time that they’re threatening us,” Caseway CEO Al Vigier told Global News.
He added that U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada should become the “51st state,” helped drive the company’s decision.
The decision meant walking away from what Vigier described as a significant opportunity for the company. Caseway had secured one of just eight presentation spots at a major industry conference, giving it the chance to pitch investors capable of financing large growth plans.
“It’s massive. I mean, that’s where all the largest companies get their funding from,” he said. “It can be $50 million. It can 100 million dollar rounds.”
But Caseway’s move away from U.S. opportunities also highlights a broader challenge for Canada’s AI industry, which remains heavily reliant on infrastructure south of the border.
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“How can we make sure that we’re not completely dependent on maybe an unreliable United States?” said Sean Mullin, a University of Toronto expert focused on innovation and technology policy.
Mullin said that reliance is particularly relevant when it comes to sensitive government and defence information.
“Government operations, top secret data — should these things be on clouds or go through AI models that are not in the control of your domestic country?” he said.
The federal government has committed to investments in quantum computing, data centres and improvements to Canada’s electricity grid. But building that capacity could take years and require millions, if not billions, of dollars.
Mullin said Canada is unlikely to build companies on the scale of AI industry leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic and should instead determine where Canadian companies can contribute within the industry’s broader supply chain.
“Our strategy should be to find places within that supply chain where we can add value,” he said.
He said Canadian companies should also work with partners rather than attempt to build every component of the AI ecosystem themselves.
For Caseway, the strategy means concentrating on Canadian defence while looking abroad to Europe and Taiwan for other opportunities.
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Vigier said one of the biggest hurdles remains finding the money to grow.
“On the investment side, it’s really bad. It’s hard to raise capital in Canada.”
In a statement, the federal government said entrepreneurs should not have to leave Canada to build globally competitive companies. The federal AI minister’s office pointed to several funding commitments and plans to use the federal government as an anchor customer for Canadian AI companies.
Vigier said increased federal attention to defence could provide an opportunity.
“The Canadian government, for the first time, is really focusing on defense. They’re putting large amounts of money behind it,” he said.
He also pointed to a recent procurement effort as a test of whether Ottawa can move quickly enough to support domestic companies.
“This is a test to see if this kind of rapid procurement can work in Canada,” Vigier said.
The challenge now, as Canadian AI companies look to reduce their reliance on the United States, is how quickly Canada can build the domestic industry and infrastructure needed to support them.
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> Where did all of the Albertans whining here come from?
@NotThatKind A Russian datacenter, probably.
Great article on an absolute nobody. This is not at all a Carney propaganda outlet.
Or wake up and develop “our” Hellium-3 capabilities!!!
AI were never needed in the first place! Why are they continuing to build hundreds more in such a hurry, despite the backlash from the Public!!?? It’s our own Hypocritical Politicians that have their Greedy Hands Invested in them and thinking they’re hiding from their Voters!! The Goal is to take away Jobs, Health Care, Bank Accounts, Farms, Etc. !! And leave people without anything to live on!! Look around and you’ll see how our Environments are Towers, Lack of Wildlife in the future. They’re all Lying to the Public. That’s why nothing they promised is getting done to help people.
An AI company pretending to be virtuous? That’s rich
BREAKING NEWS!!!
A Canadian rogue A.I. agent hacked into the Meta servers and attempted to put pronouns beside every Canadian user’s name but was discovered by Meta IT staff before it completed the task.
Right, ask an insider presumably based in Quebec, and you will get a middle of the road non-answer about being competitive. If it were a priority, we could fund and build out the infrastructure in a couple years. But not using Quebec-based IT consultants. You need research computing people in charge, and give them gold mining startup level capitalization for like 10 years guaranteed. And the government owns all the IP after and licenses it to domestic companies only.
Actions have consequences. Now Canada gets to feel the retribution and resolve of the USA.
eat sht and die, magats
USA first.
Sour grapes by the Canadian AI company. They probably had zero chance to win any work. Also, this company is probably Elbows Up and anti-American so they be black listed from any USA Govt work. Karma
Canada should have no business acess to any American military contracts. They have nothing 2 offer.
It’s easy to turn away from jobs you have no chance of getting and a way to save face in the name of being patriotic
@Andi Cap – going to Vegas to build Trump’s monument with sniper nest as a way to show your love to your dear leader? I heard Vegas is not doing too good. You should stay there full time.
Great to hear!!! they have 11 employees/contractors that should put a dent in US GDP. Every trip i make to Vegas should balance that out.
They say they are turning away from OPPORTUNITIES, meaning they gave up on competing with other companies as they probably don’t stand a chance right now anyway.
But yeah, they are blaming it on Trump.
@jacky. Canada and the US have already been taken over illegals. Why do you think there’s so much inbred white trash here?
@jacky. If Canada gets taken over by immigrants and Donnie makes it the 51st state, that’s just gonna add millions of immigrants to the US population! Does moron Trumpty and his fans actually think about anything for more than 2 seconds?
Glad to see Canadian companies saying no to US investment. The comment section here should make it reasonably clear why. The US is not a trustworthy partner.
yag, US will take over those cnadian it companies.. and only usa is the customer.. nonsense.. soon canad will taking over by immigrants amd usa
Where did all of the Albertans whining here come from?
Now that’s a Canadian company we need to support. Standing for Canada is important in the current trade environment.
Enjoy bankruptcy
Translation: We are a loser company with a loser product that no one wants so we are going to blame it on someone else. Kind of reminds me of Canada.
Ben
October 12, 2026 at 6:37 am
Great news!
Yes yes great news Benny, more Canadian jobs on the chopping block.
Great news!