Good morning! Welcome to the Canadian AI Newsletter, a weekly rundown for founders, operators and investors.
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe below.
I am Raif Barbaros, Partner at Mistral Venture Partners. Views are my own.
I also run the Canadian AI Index, a free database of Canadian AI companies, founders, rounds and investors.
AMD will pay about US$2.9B for Toronto chipmaker Taalas. Budget 2026 promised Canadian AI companies 500 MW of sovereign compute, and a Bridgewater executive will run the new Canada Strong Fund. Ada is merging with Dialpad, CPP Investments put US$50M into Beacon, and Wealthsimple launched an AI assistant a week after the big banks blocked agents. Also in this issue: data-centre protests in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Let’s get into it.
💰 Startups & Deals
Taalas (Toronto) will be bought by AMD for about US$2.9B in cash and stock, including up to US$1.4B in contingent payments.
AMD announced the deal in August without a price and expects it to close this quarter. It’s the largest Canadian tech takeover since Ecolab agreed to buy Calgary’s CoolIT for US$4.75B in March, and it tops the US$2.75B Nasdaq paid for St. John’s-based Verafin in 2020.
Ada (Toronto) is combining with Dialpad in an all-share deal that reportedly values Ada at about $600M.
Ada was valued at US$1.2B after its 2021 round, led by Spark Capital. Dialpad CEO Craig Walker will run the combined company, and Ada co-founder Mike Murchison becomes chief AI officer.
Beacon (Toronto) raised US$50M from CPP Investments, bringing its Series C to US$425M at a US$1.75B valuation.
Beacon buys software companies, 45 so far, and runs them on its AI platform. It reports more than US$200M in annual revenue and announced the first US$225M of the round in June.
🏢 Large Companies
Wealthsimple (Toronto) launched Penny, an AI assistant that prepares e-transfers, wire transfers and trades for customers to approve.
It comes a week after RBC, TD, BMO and CIBC moved to block personal AI agents, which I covered last week. Co-founder Brett Huneycutt told The Logic the banks are making a mistake. Wealthsimple plans to open accounts to ChatGPT and Claude in early 2027.
Penny was one of 12 releases at its Thursday showcase.
Google launched agentic shopping in Canada, so Canadians can buy from Lululemon and Shoppers Drug Mart inside its AI tools.
Thomson Reuters (Toronto) CEO Steve Hasker told The Logic law firms want private, custom AI after a wave of cyberattacks.
Thomson Reuters launched its own model, Thomson, in August and pitches it as cheaper than frontier models, with flat pricing. Its shares are down about 20% over the past year and fell after Q3 results on Nov 3.
BMO rolled out AI Agent Assist in its credit card contact centre, which takes more than 500,000 calls a year. It aims to cut handling time on eligible calls by 20% to 30%.
🏛️ Policy
Budget 2026 promises Canadian AI companies 500 MW of sovereign compute. Federal backstops and offtake agreements will bring in private capital.
No dollar figure is attached. Ottawa could end up competing with U.S. hyperscalers as U.S. towns vote to ban data centres.
The Canada Strong Fund, Canada’s first sovereign wealth fund, could make direct investments like Ottawa’s stake in Cohere, the budget says. (Disclosure: Cohere is a Mistral Venture Partners portfolio company.)
On Monday, Prime Minister Carney named Bridgewater co-CIO Karen Karniol-Tambour as CEO. The fund starts with $25B and will offer Canadians a retail product.
Budget 2026 says Ottawa will explore a Technology Stability Board with other countries to check whether advanced AI models stay under human control.
It also earmarks $176M for a new Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission, which would oversee AI chatbots.
Budget 2026 reports more than 15,000 registered users of CANChat, Ottawa’s internal AI tool, across 27 departments.
It also puts $100M over three years into AI and e-permitting with municipalities. Edmonton’s automated reviews cut approvals from two weeks to one day.
🖥️ Data Centres
Nova Scotians protested AI data centres on Saturday, with hundreds at Province House in Halifax and crowds in Kentville, Port Hawkesbury and Truro.
EverWind plans to open the first phase of its Point Tupper campus for Anthropic next year. It faced two nights of questions in Cape Breton.
The RM of Sherwood rezoned about 895 acres for Bell’s AI data centre expansion near Regina on Thursday, amid a chaotic protest. Bell still needs approvals to build.
BCE’s capital spending rose 49% in Q3, driven by the Bell AI Fabric build in Saskatchewan and Ziply Fiber in the U.S.
Free cash flow fell about 15%. AI-powered solutions revenue in Bell Business Markets grew 41%.
Saint John residents in Lorneville pressed Beacon AI Centres about its planned data centre at a tense open house. CBC also visited Grand Falls, N.B.’s first data-centre town.
Pembina is lining up customers for a second phase of the gas plant it’s building for Meta’s $13B data centre in Sturgeon County, Alta. The site is approved for 1.8 GW, about double the first phase, and Pembina hasn’t said whether Meta will buy the extra power.
Brookfield (Toronto) CEO Connor Teskey said Brookfield will invest where data centres are welcome, after U.S. voters backed local bans. Brookfield Asset Management raised US$25B in Q3.
📰 In brief
Unbounce (Vancouver) launched an AI landing page builder built on data from 2.5 billion conversions.
Felix Health (Toronto) launched Ask Felix, an AI assistant that works with each patient’s care team between visits.
Sterling Brokers, a Canadian benefits brokerage, bought Lucite, an AI platform for benefits brokers.
Gigsup (Vancouver) founder Stephanie Brown pitched her career AI platform on Dragons’ Den.
UBC Ventures named 17 startups for its December showcase.
New on the Canadian AI Index: Gigsup.
Thank you for reading! Subscribe, and please share any feedback 🙏🏽
— Raif