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Alberta wants $100 billion of AI data centre investment within five years, without subsidies. Recorded live at Energy Disruptors: UNITE in Calgary, Alberta's Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish, tells John Stackhouse why he sees data centres as "digital refineries" that turn natural gas into intelligence. He explains how bring-your-own-power rules protect the grid and ratepayers, why projects proposed for Sturgeon County and Olds ended so differently, and what a proposed second round of grid power could look like. A conversation about energy, AI and where Canada's computing power gets built.  Chapters 0:00 Live from Energy Disruptors: UNITE 0:42 The mood shift on data centres 4:42 Value-added economics 8:33 The Alberta model: water, setbacks, Meta vs. Olds 16:05 Exporting the intelligence 17:55 The power queue and Phase 2 21:27 Sizing the opportunity 22:36 Public opinion and responsible AI Guest: Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation, Government of Alberta Host: John Stackhouse, Senior Vice-President, Office of the CEO, RBCRecent RBC Thought Leadership Reports:License to build: Unlocking Canada's data centre potential    CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada has world-class biotech science. Too often, the companies built on it grow up somewhere else. Clarissa Desjardins, co-founder and CEO of Montreal’s Congruence Therapeutics, joins John Stackhouse on the state of biotech and what Canada must do to keep more of what it builds.  In this episode: • How AI is changing the way new drugs are discovered • Why China’s rise is reshaping the global industry • Why biotech stays invisible in Canada, even to investors • What it would take to grow Canadian companies to global scale at home    Chapters:0:00 Will Canada's medicines come from China? 0:28 Biotech's missing place in Canada's agenda 1:32 From scientist to entrepreneur 3:47 Great science, too little commercialization 6:03 How AI is changing drug discovery 9:54 Why biotech is invisible, and underfunded 13:15 Health sovereignty and the anchor-company gap 18:33 China's rise in drug discovery 21:31 What Canada needs to do next 24:17 Closing thoughts  CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Live from ALL IN 2026 in Montreal, John Stackhouse and Nora Bieberstein sit down with three German business leaders — Yvonne Denz of the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Robert Jozic of Schwarz Digits, and Dr. Ralf Wintergerst of Giesecke+Devrient — as Germany serves as ALL IN's Country of Honour. Recorded the same week Canada and Germany backed Yoshua Bengio's AI safety lab LawZero and built on last year's Digital Alliance, they discuss why Schwarz backed the Cohere-Aleph Alpha merger and what a deeper Canada-Germany tech partnership could mean for both economies.Chapters: 0:00 Intro — live from ALL IN Montreal 0:41 Co-host Nora Bieberstein joins 1:20 Yvonne Denz on Germany's delegation to Canada 2:02 Inside the industrial AI panel with BSF 3:29 Making the case for Canada-Germany business 5:36 Robert Jozic on scaling sovereign AI at Schwarz Digits 6:19 Middle powers vs. the tech hegemons 8:54 The Cohere-Aleph Alpha deal, on the record 10:12 What Germany offers Canada 11:45 Dr. Ralf Wintergerst on Germany's AI ambitions 13:19 Combining Canada's AI research with Germany's industrial base 14:27 The "third moment" in global AI 15:32 What Canada offers Germany 16:38 Building the digital euro 18:34 Reflections: the globalization of AI   CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At the Milken Institute's Global Dialogues Toronto, held alongside Prime Minister MarkCarney's Canada Investment Summit, three Canadian leaders took up both questions on onestage. Aidan Gomez co-founded Cohere and was a co-author of the 2017 paper that introducedthe transformer architecture underpinning today's large language models. Dave McKay leadsRBC. Evan Solomon is Canada's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and DigitalInnovation. Susan Li of Fox Business Network moderated. The conversation runs across three arguments. Gomez makes the case that regulation should beshaped by an independent third party rather than by the largest labs, and warns aboutincumbents using rules as a competitive moat. McKay describes a practical sovereigntyproblem: the most advanced security tooling is released selectively outside the UnitedStates, which he calls an unfair playing advantage with real cyber risk for institutionsoperating elsewhere. Solomon frames the government's position as a build right or build wrong option,and argues the test is whether society comes along. Gomez closes on the case for a democratic second rail in AI, with Cohere in Canada andMistral in France as the two candidates. It is a compact view of where Canada's AI debateactually sits. 0:00   Canada's claim on the technology it built0:16   Two kinds of uncertainty, one week in Toronto1:11   Who should write the rules for frontier AI1:46   Uneven access to the most advanced tools3:38   Canada's position on AI safety4:47   Development cycles are compressing6:52   Will AI change more jobs than it creates?8:41   Build right or build wrong9:41   How modern AI was invented in Canada11:58  The case for a democratic second rail12:39  Final thoughts from the panel14:42  What's next: geotech CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As global power dynamics shift, the intersection of technology and national strategy is defining a new Cold War race. In this season opener of Disruptors, host John Stackhouse sits down with economist and Noahpinion author Noah Smith to map out the new geopolitics of tech. Together, they unpack China’s dominance over the critical "electric tech stack" (batteries, magnets, and power electronics), why traditional military platforms are being upended by cheap drone warfare, and how middle powers like Canada, Japan, and Korea can build "Allied Scale" to compete. They also explore the true goal of modern industrial policy, the reality of AI labor disruption, and what a disabled rabbit named Giggles can teach us about resilience in a noisy world. CHAPTERS & TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction: The Shift to Geo-Technology 01:58 - Lessons in Resilience from a Disabled Rabbit 03:07 - Great Power Competition & the New Global Tech Map 07:15 - The "Electric Tech Stack": Batteries, Magnets, and Electronics 10:03 - Rebuilding "Allied Scale" Without the U.S. 13:32 - Modern Industrial Policy: Wealth vs. Strategic Preservation 17:10 - AI, Labor Disruption, and Jevons Paradox 21:30 - Canada’s Next Move in the Geo-Tech Race RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED: Substack Newsletter: Noahpinion by Noah SmithCommentary & Analysis: Bloomberg Opinion archives by Noah SmithConcepts Referenced: Rush Doshi’s "Allied Scale," Mark Carney’s commentary on global hegemons, and Jevons Paradox in economic theory. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world is investing billions in data centres and compute. Canada’s edge isn’t bigger boxes—it’s Trust: rules enforced at home, private information secured under Canadian jurisdiction, and a clear path for enterprise data handling in the age of AI. That’s how “Canadian trust” becomes a competitive advantage. This week on Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse takes us to Waterloo to map how policy as code, Canadian residency, and lineage + audit turn trust into a speed advantage. Guests: Tom Jenkins & Shannon Bell (OpenText), with Janice Stein (Munk School). Build it here—export it with confidence.Takeaways:OpenText new bookEnterprise Artificial Intelligence: Building Trusted AI with Secure DataRBC Thought Leadership’s Bridging the Imagination Gap: How Canadian companies can become global leaders in AI adoption RBC Thought Leadership CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As the world electrifies—from cars and buses to datacentres and defence—demand for battery materials is exploding. Today, China refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite into the material used in virtually all EV battery anodes—that level of concentration is a strategic vulnerability Canada, and its allies, can’t ignore. But Canada is starting to respond. The federal Major Projects Office has just referred Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Phase-2 Matawinie Mine as a “Major Project of National Interest”—a move aimed at helping Quebec and Canada shift from exporting ore to building a full mine-to-refine graphite value chain at home, and with it, an entirely new strand of economic and industrial capacity. In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, host John Stackhouse takes listeners into that story. With former Quebec premier Jean Charest and Eric Desaulniers, founder & CEO of NMG, he lifts the hood on what it means for a critical-minerals project to be treated as a “major project” in Canada—and what this could mean for Canada’s role as a trusted critical-minerals supplier to its G7 allies. RBC Thought Leadership CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada’s prosperity depends on how efficiently it can move goods to market — yet its largest ports have fallen behind the world’s best. With global trade accelerating and supply chains under pressure, Roberts Bank Terminal 2 represents a generational investment in Canada’s competitiveness. In this episode, Peter Xotta, CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Devan Fitch, the project’s Program Director, and Tamara Vrooman, CEO of Vancouver International Airport, join John Stackhouse to discuss how this long-planned expansion will bring new automation, capacity, and environmental innovation to Canada’s Pacific Gateway. Together, they explore how smart infrastructure and strong partnerships can secure Canada’s trade future — sustainably and sovereignty. RBC Thought Leadership CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Season 10 of Disruptors asked one question, in a lot of different ways: does Canada have what it takes—the tools, the ambition and the will—to  compete in the economy being built right now? For the season finale, John Stackhouse took that question to the RBC and Eurasia Group US-Canada Summit, where 500 leaders spent a day debating the most important economic relationship in the world. He came back with two conversations that, together, amount to an answer. Colonel Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel into deep space, talks about what you see from the Moon, what it taught him about collaboration and self-reliance, and why the Canada-U.S. relationship is worth fighting for. Michael Sabia, Clerk of the Privy Council, discusses the hand Canada holds right now and why this is a moment for ambition, not anxiety. Recorded live. A fitting close to a season built around urgency. For more RBC Thought Leadership on Canada's economy and competitiveness, visit rbc.com/thoughtleadership   KEYWORDS Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II, Canadian astronaut, Moon mission, deep space, Michael Sabia, Clerk of the Privy Council, Canada-US relationship, US-Canada Summit, Eurasia Group, RBC, John Stackhouse, Disruptors podcast, Season 10, Canadian economy, bilateral trade, Canada competitiveness, critical minerals, Canadian energy, AI sovereignty, Canada confidence, collaboration, ambition CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are roughly 11,000 data centres in the world. Canada has about 300. The United States has 5,000 and that number is growing fast. Canada is putting real money behind sovereign AI compute. But what does data sovereignty look like on the ground In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse visits Global Relay’s data centre in North Vancouver to see the physical side of the cloud: cooling systems, backup power, biometric access, data halls, and AI racks. Global Relay Chief Product Officer Sahar Kayhani explains how the company manages communications data for highly regulated industries and why the infrastructure behind that data is becoming as important as the data itself. Warren Roy, Global Relay’s founder and CEO, joins the conversation to discuss why the company chose to build its own cloud, and share his thoughts on what Canada needs to do to develop more technology companies rooted here. For more RBC Thought Leadership on AI, healthcare, productivity and Canada’s innovation economy, visit rbc.com/thoughtleadership. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada’s national AI strategy puts healthcare on centre stage – and for good reason. If you ask Canadians about the healthcare system, many will say they value it deeply, but that they are frustrated by wait times. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse looks at what we need to do to make artificial intelligence move the needle for wait times and quality of care. Mara Lederman, co-founder and COO of Signal 1, explains the pressure inside hospitals: rising demand, constrained supply, long waits, and digital systems that often record care without helping the system move faster. She points to practical AI uses already emerging, including AI agents that call patients before procedures, reduce cancelled appointments and protect scarce clinical capacity. Dr. Amol Verma and Dr. Fahad Razak of Unity Health Toronto take the conversation to the national level. Their work on VITAL – a health data platform – is aimed at connecting more than 160 hospitals across Canada. The promise is larger than one AI tool: better clinical trials, safer AI validation, more Canadian data, stronger governance and a healthcare system that can learn in near-real time. Canada’s healthcare system generates enormous amounts of data every day. Every hospital admission can produce hundreds of thousands – even millions – of data points, from lab tests and imaging to digital vital signs and outcomes. But too much of that data remains trapped inside hospitals, provinces and systems that were not built to learn from one another. The episode asks: if Canada has a public healthcare system, world-class research talent and hospitals generating hundreds of thousands of data points for every admitted patient, can AI finally help make the system work better for patients?   For more RBC Thought Leadership on AI, healthcare, productivity and Canada’s innovation economy, visit RBC Thought Leadership CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada has helped shape major technology waves, from AI to quantum. But when companies move from promising startup to global contender, the harder questions begin: where does the growth capital come from, who becomes the customer, and how can long-term value stay connected to Canada? In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse is joined by Boris Wertz, founder and general partner of Version One Ventures, and Sid Paquette, head of RBCx, for a conversation about Canada's growth capital gap and what it takes to build globally competitive technology companies in Canada. They discuss why Canadian companies need global investors and global markets, why domestic capital still matters, how procurement and corporate customers can help companies scale, and why AI is creating faster cycles and more concentrated outcomes. The conversation also looks ahead to physical AI, biotechnology, quantum and the steps necessary for Canada to be a world leader in the tech space for the next 30 years. Links:RBC The Growth Project Keywords: Canadian tech, growth capital, venture capital, domestic capital, RBCx, Version One Ventures, Boris Wertz, Sid Paquette, John Stackhouse, Disruptors podcast, AI, quantum, physical AI, biotechnology, procurement. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI is no longer a future technology. It is already changing how work gets done, how companies make decisions and how economies compete. This special edition of Disruptors was recorded at the Creative Destruction Lab’s Super Session during Toronto Tech Week. Host John Stackhouse is joined by Fabien Curto Millet, Chief Economist at Google and Sonia Sennik, CEO of Creative Destruction Lab, to explore AI adoption, productivity, jobs and Canada's competitiveness. Fabien brings a global view of AI adoption: where the data is showing productivity gains, why the jobs conversation is more nuanced than the headlines suggest, and why simple interventions like training, guidelines and encouragement can unlock experimentation. Sonia brings the founder and commercialization lens from CDL, where hundreds of science-based startups are working across AI, health, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and more. Together, they explore why AI is moving fast but unevenly, why some sectors and workers are pulling ahead while others remain cautious, and what leaders need to do to move from pilots to scaled workflow redesign. For Canada, the test is clear: the country has deep AI talent, strong institutions and a global reputation in modern AI. The gains will depend on adoption - especially among SMEs, public institutions and the sectors that make up the bulk of the economy. Think of it as an AI adoption blueprint for you and your organization. Further RBC Thought Leadership Reading: Bridging the Imagination Gap: How Canadian companies can become global leaders in AI adoption - RBC Turning Disruption into Momentum: Manulife’s AI Flywheel Trust, Scale, and Strategy: How to Build an AI-First Organization From Rock to ROI: How Calgary’s GeologicAI Turns Core Samples into Knowledge Sovereign by Design: Strategic Options for Canadian AI Sovereignty RBC Thought Leadership CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada has a scaleup problem. We create entrepreneurs, but too many of them feel they need to leave to build world-class companies. Fred Lalonde is one of the exceptions. He is the founder and CEO of Hopper, the Canadian travel-tech company that used data, prediction and fintech to help travellers book with more confidence. Now Lalonde is bringing that same ambition to Deep Sky, a Canadian carbon removal company. In this episode of Disruptors, recorded in front of a live audience, John Stackhouse speaks with Fred about what it takes to build and scale from Canada - and why the country needs more founders willing and able to do it here. Fred is funny and blunt, but underneath it all is a builder's clarity: disruption is not something he manages. It is something he assumes. In this episode, you'll learn: How Hopper became one of Canada's leading tech success stories Why Fred thinks entrepreneurs better be motivated by building, not just money Why AI, energy and advanced manufacturing are central to Canada's next growth chapter What it takes to build a world-class company without leaving Canada   RBC Thought Leadership Keywords: Fred Lalonde, Frederic Lalonde, Hopper, Deep Sky, John Stackhouse, Disruptors podcast, RBC Thought Leadership, Canadian unicorns, Canadian startups, Canadian founders, Canadian scaleups, Canada startup ecosystem, Canada founder gap, Canadian entrepreneurship, Canadian innovation, venture capital Canada, growth capital Canada, RBC growth fund, homegrown Canadian companies, AI disruption, climate tech, carbon removal, direct air capture, energy transition, advanced manufacturing, Canadian productivity, Canadian competitiveness. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, John Stackhouse visits Ross on the outskirts of Ottawa to talk with CEO David Ross about how the company grew from a small Canadian manufacturer into a global live-production infrastructure player. They discuss why the economics of live events changed so dramatically, how cheaper and more powerful screens transformed stadiums and concerts into multimedia platforms, and how Ross helps turn live data into visual storytelling through graphics, overlays, motion systems and production control. Ross Video is one of Canada’s most consequential technology companies, even if most audiences have never heard of its name. They work across more than 100 countries. Their technology now sits inside countless modern live-event and broadcast experience:  On field graphics, robotic camera systems, data-rich stadium presentation, newsroom and broadcast automation and the production systems behind concerts, major sports, studios and major event coverage for clients like MLB, NFL, PGA, NHL, Premier League, Metallica, Taylor Switft, Coldplay the list goes on and on and on. The conversation also surfaces a bigger business story. Ross describes its work as brand amplification technology, helping sports teams, venues, concerts and companies use screens, graphics, motion systems and production tools to deepen audience experience and strengthen commercial value. David lays out the company’s operating logic clearly: expand into adjacencies, acquire expertise when needed, keep founders and technical talent engaged, and never fall behind in technology. That approach shows up in Ross’s reinvestment model too: roughly one-third of the company is in R&D. This episode is about sports broadcast innovation, stadium technology, robotic cameras, concert production, real-time graphics, data storytelling, and the broader live-entertainment economy. Ross sits inside a much larger market shift: a world where live sports, concerts, venue systems, and production technology are becoming more immersive, more data-driven and more economically important. For more ideas and insights on Canada’s economy, innovation, and competitiveness, visit  RBC Thought Leadership Primary keywords: Ross Video; David Ross; John Stackhouse; Disruptors podcast; Ottawa technology company; Canadian tech company; live production technology; sports broadcast technology; stadium technology; robotic cameras; spidercam; sports graphics; NFL first down line; MLB All-Star Game; Olympic broadcast technology; concert production technology; newsroom automation; data visualization in sports; live event infrastructure; sports media innovation CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.