Web Summit Vancouver 2026 highlighted Canada’s ambition to build more of its technology economy at home.
Federal, provincial and corporate announcements on domestic capital allocation, sovereign AI, quantum computing, clean tech and life sciences peppered the week.
Kicking off the event on May 11, federal AI minister Evan Solomon, joined onstage by Cohere’s Chief AI Officer Joelle Pineau, pointed out the country’s research strength, talent base and growing infrastructure, while arguing that more support is needed for commercialization, capital formation and domestic scale.
He told the audience that Canada has the opportunity to become a major technology hub if it can overcome the structural problems that have long pushed startups and…
