Semiconductor Showdown: Canada Enters the Chip Race
Disruptors21 Feb 2023

Semiconductor Showdown: Canada Enters the Chip Race

Is the hustle to build a reliable, domestic supply of semiconductors the new space race?

Semiconductors are small computer chips the size of a fingerprint that contain hundreds of millions, if not billions, of tiny transistors. And they’re essential for today’s electronics—from coffee machines to data centres that run the Internet. The world needs a lot of them to function.

But the world is a complicated place, filled with even more complicated supply chains. Nations worldwide are announcing semiconductor strategies to either onshore their production or at the very least make sure they aren’t being left behind.

On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse is joined by Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, and the co-author of a recent Globe and Mail op-ed, “U.S. is seizing the moment on chips and semiconductors—why can’t Canada?”

He’ll also speak to Jim Keller, CEO of Toronto-based Tenstorrent, makers of specialized AI application chips.

Semiconductor production is extremely complex and their factories are the most expensive in human history. Does Canada have the resources and know-how to keep up? Listen in to find out.



To read Benjamin Bergen’s op-ed, click here, to find out more about the Council of Canadian Innovators, go to their website. Click here to find out more about Tenstorrent’s specialized Next Generation chips. For more information about the U.S. government’s Chips and Science act, click here.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(221)

Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline

Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline

Canada’s Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics delivered unforgettable moments — and also a hard signal: podium success is increasingly won upstream, through systems, sport science, and technology. In ...

10 Mars 31min

Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge

Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge

Quantum computing is accelerating — and putting today’s encryption on a clock. John Stackhouse goes inside Xanadu’s Toronto lab with Christian Weedbrook to meet Aurora, a networked quantum computer bu...

24 Feb 22min

The $15m Cliff:  Keeping Canadian Agri-Food Startups Scaling at Home

The $15m Cliff: Keeping Canadian Agri-Food Startups Scaling at Home

Canada is exporting too much of its agri-food upside—IP, talent, and value-add—because growth-stage financing doesn’t fit the sector. From Ottawa, John Stackhouse speaks with RBC’s Lisa Ashton to unpa...

11 Feb 28min

Risk as Signal: A Canadian Playbook

Risk as Signal: A Canadian Playbook

Fresh from Davos, John Stackhouse shares field notes on how the world’s economy is reorganizing — and what that means for Canadians.He is joined by Gerald Butts, Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor at Eu...

27 Jan 23min

Climate-Led Investing: What’s Next

Climate-Led Investing: What’s Next

If you’re trying to separate climate ambition from execution, this conversation is for you! John Stackhouse is joined by Clara Barby, Senior Partner at Just Climate, to pressure-test what’s scaling—an...

13 Jan 23min

Alberta’s Next Energy Mix

Alberta’s Next Energy Mix

With industrial power demand rising, can small modular reactors help anchor a cleaner, always‑on system that will support the incoming AI Data Centre boom? In this bonus episode of Disruptors, recorde...

30 Dec 202524min

Building Canada: A new generation takes charge

Building Canada: A new generation takes charge

Canada’s future won’t be decided in PDF strategies — it will be decided by what we actually build: trade corridors, clean power, AI datacentres, agtech and northern connectivity that can stand up in a...

16 Dec 202528min

Power to Compute: How Alberta Is Powering the AI Age

Power to Compute: How Alberta Is Powering the AI Age

Energy planners used to talk about a “trilemma”: reliability, affordability and sustainability.As AI reshapes the global economy and data centres demand thousands of megawatts of new load, Alberta is ...

9 Dec 202526min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
badfluence
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-svart-marknad
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
rss-dagen-med-di
avanzapodden
lastbilspodden
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
fill-or-kill
bathina-en-podcast
bilar-med-sladd
borsmorgon
market-makers
24fragor
dynastin
svd-tech-brief