Canadian AI firm Caseway halts U.S. government pursuit

A Canadian artificial intelligence company says it is walking away from U.S. government work and putting its defence ambitions into Canada, Europe and Taiwan, citing American threats against Canada’s sovereignty.

Al Vigier, chief executive of Caseway, told Global News on Oct. 12 that he is no longer comfortable helping the United States with its AI needs “at the same time that they’re threatening us.” He pointed to U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada become the “51st state.”

Caseway builds AI tools for legal and defence work. The company is described as Vancouver-based in the body of the Global News story and in the San Francisco Standard, although the Global News page metadata lists it as an Ottawa company.

The decision has already cost the firm a chance to pitch investors. Vigier said Caseway gave up one of eight presentation slots at a major industry conference. He called the opportunity “massive,” noting that funding rounds of roughly $50 million to $100 million often start at events like it, Global News reported.

The San Francisco Standard reported on Sept. 29 that the event was the AI Conference at Pier 48 in San Francisco. Vigier’s trip was backed by the Canadian Technology Accelerator, a government program that helps Canadian AI companies compete in the U.S. market, the Standard reported. The other seven companies in the program stayed for the demo day and other events arranged by the Canadian consulate general in Palo Alto.

Vigier described the pullback as temporary. “We’re pulling out for the next few years until there’s some clarity or stability,” he told the Standard. He said Caseway will honour its existing contracts and is still weighing new U.S. legal work, but will stop pursuing U.S. defence contracts.

The company’s defence push is recent. According to the Standard, it began less than a year ago after a $75,000 Canadian government grant. The Standard also reported that a partnership with a large California company to supply a product to the state court system could take Caseway from 15 to 40 employees. Neither outlet gave figures for the company’s revenue or funding.

Vigier also said it is hard to raise money in Canada, calling investment conditions “really bad.” He told Global News that federal interest in defence, and a recent procurement push, could be a test of whether Ottawa can move fast enough to back domestic firms.

Sean Mullin, who studies innovation and technology policy at the University of Toronto, told Global News that Canada has to ask how it avoids depending on “maybe an unreliable United States.” He said sensitive government and defence data raises questions about relying on AI models Canada does not control. He added that Canada is unlikely to build companies on the scale of OpenAI or Anthropic and should look for places to add value in the global AI supply chain.

The federal government said in a statement that entrepreneurs should not have to leave Canada to build globally competitive companies, Global News reported. The AI minister’s office pointed to existing funding commitments and plans to use Ottawa as an anchor customer for Canadian AI firms.

The policy backdrop matters for young founders weighing the same choice. In a June 5 essay in the Vancouver Tech Journal, Vigier himself argued that the federal Defence Industrial Strategy, launched in February, targets 70 per cent of defence acquisitions going to Canadian firms over the next decade. That figure comes from his essay, not from a government release reviewed by Canada News Media, and Vigier is both its author and the subject of this story.

What remains unanswered is how many Canadian firms are making the same call, and whether Ottawa’s promised procurement can replace the U.S. contracts and investor access they are giving up.

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Via Global News, with additional reporting from the San Francisco Standard and the Vancouver Tech Journal. Featured image: file photo of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, not from the events described.