Canada and Germany deepen their AI cooperation for more technological sovereignty at ALL IN

Building on the Canada-Germany Digital Alliance launched in December 2025, Federal Minister Karsten Wildberger (BMDS) participated in ALL IN to further deepen cooperation on digital policy with Canada. Minister Wildberger was accompanied by a business delegation with over 20 representatives from German organisations operating in the AI sector.

The delegation brought in their needs and topics for policy cooperation and engaged with Canadian partners. In addition, German businesses, research institutes and public sector organisations were able to showcase their work at the German Pavilion. The pavilion served as a meeting and exchange point for German-Canadian AI cooperation.

At the end of the two days, the governments as well as businesses and research organisations from both countries had signed multiple agreements for a stronger partnership.

Governments deepen ties: Sovereign Tech Alliance and funding of LawZero

On the sidelines of ALL IN, Minister Wildberger and the Canadian Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, held the first meeting of the Sovereign Tech Alliance (STA). The STA was announced in February 2026. It is aimed at fostering cooperation with countries and organisations that share the vision of building a more diverse and trusted AI ecosystem. As a result of the meeting, Canada and Germany agreed to add more founding members in the following months.

In another announcement, both ministers revealed their plan to support the non-profit start-up LawZero with a combined funding of CAD $300 million. LawZero is based in Montréal and was founded by Yoshua Bengio, one of the pioneers of AI research. His non-profit organisation aims to build safe-by-design AI that is more transparent and more truthful than most autonomous AI agents of today. The investment by Canda and Germany will help LawZero to grow its research team, secure computing infrastructure and fund a new office in Germany.

These agreements underline the close partnership between the Canadian and German governments on advancing a digital future that is built on shared values of democracy and technological sovereignty.

Industry and research cooperation: New transatlantic AI champion and AI research partnership

Canadian and German businesses and research institutes have also doubled down on their cooperation at ALL IN. The German AI start-up Aleph Alpha and the Canadian AI company Cohere signed a merger agreement, and will now operate as one company under the Cohere brand with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. Aleph Alpha's office in Heidelberg will function as a research centre. With the merger, both companies aim to create the largest AI company outside the US and China, as a significant step towards more sovereignty.

Moreover, the two main AI research institutes in Canada and Germany have agreed on strengthening their partnership. The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Canadian research institute Mila have signed a memorandum of understanding on collaboration on joint research projects. The projects will focus on the development of safe and trustworthy AI systems and agentic AI, as well as the energy sector. Combining research strengths across the Atlantic will ensure that crucial knowledge on key technologies will be generated within partners that share values.

Overall, the two days in Montréal translated the Canada-Germany Digital Alliance into concrete results. The advanced cooperation by governments, businesses and research institutes represents a major step towards strengthening the AI ecosystems and economies of both Canada and Germany.