AI minister seeks new investments in Germany, Saudi Arabia and India

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon visited Germany and will travel to Saudi Arabia and India to broaden trade alliances and seek investment in Canadian infrastructure and technology.

Evan Solomon, Canada's Artificial Intelligence Minister, is traveling to Saudi Arabia and India after a visit to Germany. He says the trips are intended to broaden trade alliances and to obtain investment in Canadian infrastructure and technology. Solomon attended the Munich Security Conference recently and will attend the AI Impact Summit in India. The visits come as Prime Minister Mark Carney drew attention for a speech calling for middle powers to work together against great-power economic coercion. Known details: - Solomon signed a new initiative on sovereign technology in Munich, described as the Sovereign Technology Alliance. - A government press release said Canada and Germany will deepen co-ordination with trusted partners to strengthen sovereign AI capacity and reduce strategic technology dependencies. - In December at a G7 ministers' meeting in Montreal, Solomon signed agreements with Germany, the European Union and the United Kingdom. - Solomon said he has been working on relationships with Saudi Arabia and aims to establish a framework to increase investment there; he previously visited Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE. - The sovereign technology agreement text specifically mentions LawZero and Canadian work on AI governance led by researchers such as Yoshua Bengio. Summary: The visits aim to deepen trade ties and attract investment into Canadian infrastructure and technology. Solomon will stop in Saudi Arabia before attending the AI Impact Summit in India. The report did not detail specific expected outcomes from those meetings.