Bell Canada and Cohere sign AI deal
Bell Canada and Cohere sign AI deal
Publish Date: 2026-06-18 10:15:00
Source Domain: www.cp24.com
Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer at Cohere, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the future of Canada’s AI industry following PM Carney’s announcement.
MONTREAL — Bell Canada has signed an artificial intelligence infrastructure deal with Cohere that will see the AI firm operate its large language models through Bell AI Fabric, with support from two other companies.
Under the agreement, Bell will provide data centre capacity at its facility in Merritt, B.C.
The companies are also working with Buzz High Performance Computing, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Hive Digital Technologies Ltd., which will deliver an AI-native cloud layer using Quebec-based Hypertec’s hardware cluster and NVIDIA accelerated computing to support production-grade AI workloads.
Cohere, which is based in Toronto, will use the platform to operate its foundation models and support secure enterprise-grade AI solutions for government and business customers.
The four companies say they will build the conditions needed to conduct the critical research and development needed for AI models using Canadian infrastructure.
Bell and Cohere first announced a partnership last July to provide full-stack sovereign AI solutions for government and enterprise customers across Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2026.
CTV News, BNN Bloomberg and CP24 are owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.
