July 30, 2025 New platform designed to meet strict compliance and privacy needs of government and enterprise users

OpenText and TELUS are joining forces to deliver what they call Canada’s first fully sovereign cloud platform for artificial intelligence and enterprise computing. The new offering, announced Tuesday, will run entirely within TELUS-owned Canadian data centres in Rimouski, Que., and Kamloops, B.C.

Branded the “OpenText and TELUS Canadian Sovereign Cloud,” the service promises full data residency, advanced AI capabilities and compliance with Canada’s security and privacy regulations. The companies say the platform is built specifically for Canadian government bodies and large enterprises with sensitive data workloads.

“This is a uniquely Canadian solution,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText’s CEO and CTO, in a release. “Our customers can now innovate with confidence, knowing their data and AI workloads remain protected and in-country.”

In addition to data sovereignty, the  companies pledge to operative a responsible AI offering as outlined in Canada’s voluntary AI Code of Conduct.

The platform includes OpenText’s Aviator AI suite, integrated into what TELUS calls its “Sovereign AI Factory,” that Open Text maintains will allow organizations to build, tune, and deploy AI models entirely within Canadian borders.

The announcement comes amid growing concern over foreign data access laws and rising demand for compliance-friendly cloud solutions. Although several global cloud providers have made data residency commitments, many still route operations or backups through U.S. or offshore jurisdictions—raising legal concerns under laws like the U.S. Cloud Act.

The Canadian Sovereign Cloud aims to remove that ambiguity by ensuring that every component—data, applications, computation, and network traffic—stays in Canada.

TELUS CEO Darren Entwistle said the partnership delivers on long-standing demands for a Canadian-based AI infrastructure: “We are delivering Canada’s first truly sovereign AI platform.”

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, welcomed the move. “We need to see more collaborations like this to drive our nation forward,” he said.

The service will be commercially available in September.