OpenAI is considering securing data center capacity in Canada.

As reported by The Globe and Mail, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, said that the company was considering Canada for data center capacity, and that such a move could contribute to the country’s efforts to develop sovereign AI capabilities.

Lehane compared the move to those that have previously been announced in Germany and Norway.

In Norway, the AI startup is working with Nscale and Aker for an initial 230MW of IT capacity and 100,000 GPUs by the end of 2026. This is part of OpenAI’s “Stargate” initiative.

In Germany, OpenAI is teaming up with Microsoft and SAP to launch “OpenAI for Germany,” which will make its services available via SAP’s Delos Cloud, which runs on Microsoft Azure infrastructure hosted outside Microsoft’s control.

Similarly, Lehane said that in Canada, OpenAI could look to build infrastructure. purchase capacity, or partner locally. “It is about being a true, real partner here on the ground in Canada. That could be a full-stack infrastructure. It could be doing some version of committing to buying compute. It could be helping to support specific government programs.”

Lehane said that OpenAI is currently in talks with government officials, including federal AI minister Evan Soloman, as well as public and private sector players, to discuss possible plans for the country.

Discussions in Canada come amidst an effort from the country to expand its local AI and compute capabilities. Soloman said at an AI conference in September that digital sovereignty is the “most pressing policy and democratic issue of our time,” though he noted the importance of also working with international partners. Canada has its own AI startup, Cohere, which is competing, albeit on a smaller scale, with OpenAI. The company recently signed a deal with AMD to use the latter’s GPUs.

OpenAI’s Lehane acknowledged Canada’s efforts to “build out its own sovereign AI,” but said that the company needs to attract capital to do so, and OpenAI’s entering the country could be a “catalyst.”

OpenAI’s massive global compute buildout is part of its Stargate project.

Stargate was launched by OpenAI in January, in partnership with SoftBank, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. At the time, it claimed it would invest $500 billion in digital infrastructure in the US over the next four years to serve OpenAI’s compute needs.

This was later expanded to include other locations globally, the most recent of which announced was South Korea.

Canada’s main data center markets are located around Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. The country is expected to see significant growth, with a recent report from DC Byte suggesting it has a development pipeline of around 9GW.