AI compute firm LawZero has secured a commitment of up to $300 million in joint funding from the governments of Canada and Germany.

MONTREAL, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the ALL IN conference, Canada and Germany announced joint funding of up to CAD $300 million for LawZero to develop a fundamentally new form of advanced, safe, and capable artificial intelligence.

The rapid acceleration of AI introduces significant risks, recently demonstrated by systems breaching established safety boundaries. There is an urgent global need for alternatives that ensure AI development remains trustworthy, aligns with sovereign values, and safeguards human progress. This joint investment underscores strong confidence in LawZero’s technical approach and its potential to provide essential sovereign leadership in next-generation AI systems.

The funding will accelerate the next phase of LawZero’s technical roadmap, enabling the expansion of its international scientific research team and the acquisition of world-class computing infrastructure. As part of this growth, LawZero will establish a European headquarters in Berlin, integrating into Germany’s robust innovation ecosystem.

In parallel, LawZero will build a dedicated, sovereign compute infrastructure in Canada through a partnership with domestic firms Hypertec and 5C. This collaboration will supply the advanced computing capacity necessary to scale its research while anchoring critical AI infrastructure, expertise, and capabilities within Canada.

LawZero’s flagship initiative, Scientist AI, treats reliability as a foundational capability, focusing on building a fundamentally new class of AI engineered for trustworthiness and safety from inception. Unlike contemporary frontier models designed to operate autonomously and optimize independent objectives, Scientist AI is built to reason transparently and deliver reliable, evidence-based outputs free from self-directed goals. As LawZero advances toward safe, highly capable AI, Scientist AI is expected to establish operational guardrails for existing frontier models, accelerate scientific discovery, and deepen the understanding of AI risks and mitigation strategies.

“Canada's future in artificial intelligence depends on developing advanced systems that reflect our values and protect our interests. By investing in homegrown innovation like Scientist AI, we are strengthening Canada's sovereign AI capacity and ensuring that the next generation of AI is built safely, responsibly, and on Canadian terms.”

– The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

“Canada's economy grows when we support the kind of innovation that helps our industries compete and succeed. By investing in LawZero, a Canadian organization advancing safe, high-impact AI, we are building domestic capacity, supporting good jobs, and helping to ensure that advanced technologies are developed responsibly and in ways that benefit Canadians.”

– The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

“With 'Scientist AI', we are deepening the proven partnership between Canada and Germany. This project pursues a novel, mathematically grounded approach: to develop an inherently safe artificial intelligence. The safe-by-design model offers an alternative to potentially uncontrollable autonomous AI agents. It works purely on the basis of facts – like an objective scientist – and does not pursue its own goals. By building advanced AI research capabilities in Canada and Europe, we are strengthening our technological sovereignty.”

– Dr. Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digitalization and Government Modernization of Germany

“As AI risks multiply and accelerate, our priority must be building solutions to make this technology safe, and providing alternative models people can genuinely trust. Recent events demonstrate that safety is itself a core capability: scientific innovation and public safety can and must advance together. LawZero's mission is to address this critical scientific challenge by developing reliable, safe-by-design AI. This backing from Canada and Germany is a defining moment, moving us into the next phase of developing safe AI on a global scale while improving both nations' technological sovereignty.”

– Yoshua Bengio, Founder and Scientific Director, LawZero

“AI is advancing at a pace the world has never seen and has the potential to transform the world for the better. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure we can enable AI safely, and I believe Canada has a role to play in making it happen. Hypertec is proud to build, along with our partner 5C, the sovereign, world-class compute infrastructure that enables Law Zero to pursue safe-by-design AI on Canadian soil. This is exactly the kind of partnership between government, capital and Canadian industry required to achieve the potential AI promises.”

– Simon Ahdoot, CEO Hypertec Group

“Breakthrough AI research needs infrastructure that can perform at the same level. 5C is proud to provide Law Zero with the dedicated compute capacity required to advance its work at scale, here in Canada.”

– Jonathan Ahdoot, CEO 5C

Headquartered in Montreal, LawZero is a nonprofit organization developing technical solutions for highly capable, safe-by-design AI systems. Founded by Turing Award laureate Yoshua Bengio, the company bridges fundamental AI safety research with practical engineering. LawZero is governed by an independent Board of Directors and a Global Advisory Council comprising international leaders such as Maria Eitel (Board Chair and founder of the Nike Foundation and Girl Effect), former Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Stefan Löfven, author Yuval Noah Harari, former Rolls-Royce CEO Sir John Rose, and Mila CEO Valerie Pisano. Originally incubated at Mila, LawZero’s research is supported by catalytic funding from philanthropic organizations including the Gates Foundation, Coefficient Giving, Schmidt Sciences, the Future of Life Institute, NVIDIA, and Jaan Tallinn via the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, alongside direct investments from the governments of Canada and Germany.

For more information on LawZero’s research, visit https://lawzero.org/en/research.

Media contact: media@lawzero.org

Source: LawZero