By Adriano Marchese

Canadian telco Telus and L-Spark have launched a national accelerator to give Canadian startups access to the domestic artificial intelligence supercomputer, aiming to speed the development of new AI technologies in the country.

The two companies said Tuesday that the sovereign AI accelerator aims to support a new wave of Canadian innovation by accelerating the go-to-market strategies and investment readiness of select businesses.

L-Spark is a Canadian startup accelerator that works with early-stage and growth-stage tech companies to scale up.

The first cohort includes startups in retail, healthcare, robotics, enterprise software and industrial automation. Each company gets compute credits, access to sovereign infrastructure, and six months of hands on advisory support, they said.

Those selected will get access to Telus' AI computing center and support from L‑Spark, giving them the tools and support to develop AI products more quickly and bring them to market.

The program is meant to help young companies grow while keeping their technology and intellectual property in Canada.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2026 09:03 ET (13:03 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.