Anthropic expands Canadian footprint with AI training program

This photograph shows the logo of the U.S. artificial intelligence safety and research company Anthropic displayed on a smartphone's screen in Brussels on June 10, 2026. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP via Getty Images

Article content

San Francisco-based Anthropic PBC and a Toronto-based non-profit are teaming up on a program designed to teach Canadians how to use artificial intelligence to build one-person companies.

Article content

The partnership with Venture for Canada, announced on Thursday, will give entrepreneurs access to a Claude Max licence for the six-week program to help them turn their ideas into a viable one-person business.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Venture for Canada chief executive Steven Wang said that the training will be comprehensive and include guidance on how to adopt the tech effectively and responsibly.

Article content

Article content

Anthropic previously committed $10 million in Claude credits to Canadian research institutes in July. Canada’s three national AI institutes — Edmonton’s Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Quebec’s Mila and Toronto’s Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence — will receive $1 million each in credits to work on AI safety research and applying the tech to industries like robotics and healthcare.

Article content

Anthropic will also provide at least US$5,000 in Claude credits to startups affiliated with the national AI institutes to help them build their businesses.

Article content

OpenAI LLC has pursued a similar playbook, offering free credits for its AI tools to startups enrolled in Creative Destruction Lab, a non-profit accelerator for early stage science- and technology-focused startups. The ChatGPT maker said it will provide credits to more than 700 startups and work with a select group of “high-performing companies” to help them bring to market and scale their AI products.

Article content

Article content

But some technology policy watchers say that there could be tradeoffs to such arrangements.

Article content

Article content

Vass Bednar, managing director at the Canadian Shield Institute, a policy-focused think tank, said such arrangements entrench the positions of the leading AI labs and quash competition.

Article content

“When technology firms offer free credits dressed up as investment, they are trying to set themselves up as a dominant player in this technology,” she said.

Article content

Wendy Wong, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia and author of We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age, said the deals give Canadian companies access to advanced AI they may find expensive or difficult to access, but they could create dependencies on specific AI systems.

Article content

The Canadian organizations partnering with the U.S. AI giants say that strategies are in place to ensure businesses aren’t locked into one model provider and to help ensure their gains stay in Canada.

Article content

“Access is not dependence,” Ajay Agrawal, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab and a professor and Geoffrey Taber chair in entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Toronto, said. “Free credits lower the cost of experimentation, which is enormously valuable for startups.”