A new report reveals that three American tech companies control 85% of Canada's publicly-available cloud infrastructure, far above their 66% global average. Amazon holds 42% of the market, Microsoft 31%, and Google 12%, according to the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project.
The Canadian government is set to release an AI strategy this week, expected to call for building sovereign compute infrastructure under Canadian governance. Since 2021, Ottawa has spent nearly $1.3 billion on cloud services from U.S. companies, with most going to Microsoft.
The report warns that dependence on U.S. hyperscalers poses sovereign risk, especially amid rising U.S.-Canada tensions. It recommends the government promote competition by requiring interoperable technologies and using its buying power to lower switching costs, rather than simply funding domestic telecoms.