Canada has joined the governing board of the EuroHPC JU, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. This membership was announced on October 30, 2026, in Montreal, following the 21st summit between the European Union and Canada, which resulted in a joint declaration launching a ‘Future Alliance.’ The same day, the Joint Undertaking confirmed in its press release that Canada had become its 39th participating state.
In her statement following the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen summarized the move in one sentence: ‘we are opening up Europe’s supercomputing infrastructure to Canada.’ EuroHPC JU is a European legal entity that pools funds from the Union and participating states to purchase supercomputers—these very powerful machines—and fund high-performance computing research. It has already acquired 12 supercomputers, including JUPITER in Germany and Alice Recoque in France, and oversees 19 AI Factories. Since Regulation (EU) 2026/150 came into force on January 20, 2026, its mandate also covers AI gigafactories and quantum technologies.
A Seat on the Governing Board
The status of participating state first grants a seat on the governing board. This board, composed of the Commission and one representative per participating state, makes strategic and funding decisions, including all public procurement. According to the Joint Undertaking’s governance page, as of November 2, 2026, Canada is represented by Nipun Vats, with Sheila Kennedy as deputy. Canada thus joins eleven other participating states outside the Union, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, and Israel, and becomes the sole member from the American continent. The terms of this participation have not been published, so the actual weight of this voice remains undetermined.
Access Still Lacking Detail
The press release states that Canada will be able to, ‘like other participating states,’ access the Joint Undertaking’s HPC, AI, and quantum computing resources, and that its scientists will be able to collaborate with their European counterparts. Canadian Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, mentions ‘new opportunities for Canadian researchers and innovators.’
Free access, reserved for the public sector, research, and SMEs, is granted through calls for proposals evaluated by independent experts, while other commercial uses are charged on a pay-per-use basis. For AI Factories, the ‘industrial innovation’ pathway offers three levels, including Fast Lane, up to 50,000 GPU hours, opened for free to AI SMEs and startups. According to EuroHPC’s access policy, in its December 2025 version, eligibility depends on the program that funded each machine. Canada has been associated with Horizon Europe since 2024, but the lists of eligible countries published by the Joint Undertaking did not yet mention Canada as of November 2. Neither the joint declaration nor the press release specifies the amount of a potential Canadian financial contribution.
A Tool for External Partnerships
This membership is part of a series of initiatives. On September 23, 2026, EuroHPC JU launched the EU-Latin America and Caribbean AI Supercomputing Network, linked to the Global Gateway strategy and coordinated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, with seven European partners including Inria. The format differs: it is a two-year cooperation project with seven Latin American countries, whereas Canada obtains a full-fledged seat. Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director of EuroHPC JU, presents the membership as reflecting ‘the growing importance of international partnerships.’
The joint declaration also announces the conclusion of substantive negotiations on a digital trade agreement, which the Commission President describes as ‘the digital arm of CETA.’ The text provides for cooperation on access to large-scale computing infrastructure for AI, ‘including AI Factories,’ as well as work towards mutual recognition of AI system conformity assessment results, which for now is only an objective. For French users, access calls remain open under the same conditions, and the French AI Factory remains part of the network. The next visible step will be the publication of calls mentioning Canada among eligible countries, as well as the first board meeting attended by the Canadian representative.
