Bell Canada partners with Cohere for sovereign AI solutions

Bell Canada, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, has formed a strategic partnership with Cohere, a Toronto-based enterprise AI company, to deliver sovereign artificial intelligence solutions specifically designed for Canadian government and business clients. This collaboration addresses growing concerns about data security and regulatory compliance by ensuring that sensitive information remains within Canadian borders while accessing cutting-edge AI capabilities.

The partnership represents a significant development in Canada’s AI infrastructure landscape, combining Bell’s extensive telecommunications network with Cohere’s advanced language models to create what the companies describe as a “full-stack” AI platform. Unlike cloud-based AI services that may store data internationally, this sovereign approach keeps all processing and storage within Canada, addressing regulatory requirements and security concerns that have become increasingly important for government agencies and enterprises handling sensitive information.

Understanding sovereign AI

Sovereign AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that operate entirely within a country’s borders, ensuring complete control over data processing, storage, and governance. This approach has become crucial for governments and enterprises that must comply with strict data residency requirements or handle classified information. Traditional AI services often rely on international cloud infrastructure, creating potential security vulnerabilities and regulatory compliance challenges.

For Canadian organizations, sovereign AI solutions eliminate concerns about foreign data access while maintaining access to advanced AI capabilities. This is particularly important given recent geopolitical tensions and increasing scrutiny of cross-border data flows.

The partnership structure

Under the agreement, Cohere will integrate its enterprise-grade AI capabilities into Bell’s AI Fabric platform, giving Canadian customers access to customized large language models (LLMs) and applications that meet sovereignty and security standards. Large language models are AI systems trained on vast amounts of text data that can understand and generate human-like responses, powering everything from chatbots to content creation tools.

Bell becomes Cohere’s preferred infrastructure provider in Canada, while Cohere serves as Bell’s preferred domestic provider of large language models and agentic AI software. Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can act autonomously to complete tasks, make decisions, and interact with other systems without constant human oversight—essentially creating AI “agents” that can handle complex workflows independently.

The collaboration also includes deploying Cohere’s North platform, an agentic AI system, within Bell’s internal operations. This internal implementation will help Bell employees develop and manage AI agents using proprietary company data, while also enhancing Bell’s ability to provide managed AI services to external customers.

Bell AI Fabric architecture

The Bell AI Fabric platform consists of four integrated layers designed to provide comprehensive AI services:

Hardware infrastructure forms the foundation, featuring what Bell claims will be Canada’s largest sovereign AI data centers built on the company’s national fiber network. This infrastructure is designed to provide over 500 megawatts of hydroelectric-powered AI compute capacity across six facilities, starting with a data center cluster in British Columbia.

Software infrastructure includes Cohere’s large language models customized specifically for Bell, along with a comprehensive suite of cloud computing and machine learning tools. This layer provides the core AI capabilities that power applications and services.

Advisory services are delivered through Ateko, Bell’s enterprise technology brand that focuses on cloud computing, automation, and workforce transformation. These services help organizations develop AI strategies and implement solutions tailored to their specific needs.

Application layer encompasses both business and consumer-facing AI tools, including Cohere’s North platform for creating and managing AI agents. This layer provides the user interfaces and applications that organizations interact with directly.

All four layers incorporate strong cybersecurity protocols encompassing physical security, network protection, and operational safeguards to maintain privacy and ensure data remains within Canada.

Implementation timeline and scale

Bell’s AI Fabric initiative represents a substantial infrastructure investment that began taking shape in May 2024. The first facility, a 7-megawatt AI inference center in Kamloops, British Columbia, launched in partnership with Groq, an AI inference provider that specializes in high-speed AI processing. AI inference refers to the process of using trained AI models to make predictions or generate responses, as opposed to the initial training phase where models learn from data.

Additional facilities are scheduled to come online by the end of 2026, including a 26-megawatt AI data center being developed in partnership with Thompson Rivers University. This expansion timeline reflects the significant infrastructure requirements needed to support enterprise-scale AI operations while maintaining sovereign data controls.

Executive perspectives

Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell Canada, emphasized the strategic importance of the partnership: “At a critical time for Canada, we’re proud to partner with Cohere to create a sovereign, full-stack AI solution, custom-built to support Canadian government and business. Working together, we will both transform Canadian businesses through cutting edge AI capabilities, while ensuring that the data remains secure and within Canada.”

Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, highlighted the productivity potential: “Our partnership with Bell Canada will provide the Canadian government and enterprises with world-class options for sovereign, security-first AI. This has the potential to be truly transformative for organizations looking to massively increase their productivity and efficiency without any compromise on data security and privacy.”

Market implications

This partnership positions Canada to compete more effectively in the global AI market while maintaining data sovereignty. As organizations worldwide grapple with balancing AI adoption against security and regulatory concerns, sovereign AI solutions like this Bell-Cohere collaboration may become increasingly attractive models for other countries seeking similar capabilities.

The collaboration also demonstrates how telecommunications companies can leverage their existing infrastructure investments to enter the AI services market, potentially creating new revenue streams while supporting national technology objectives. For Canadian businesses and government agencies, this partnership offers a path to advanced AI capabilities without the regulatory and security compromises that might come with international cloud-based alternatives.