NEWS
Vention opens Montreal Physical AI lab to scale industrial robotics
Vention has opened a Physical AI laboratory in Montreal to accelerate the move from advanced robotics research to reliable, scalable deployment on factory floors.
The facility will focus on robotic manipulation for manufacturing, including automotive, electronics and industrial goods production. Its research programme spans industrial data collection, robotics control, motion planning, computer vision, foundation models, learning from demonstration and reinforcement learning.
Led by Director of Physical AI Dr Jimmy Li, the laboratory will use feedback from Vention’ s global manufacturing customers to shape model development and benchmarks. The company’ s technology is deployed across thousands of manufacturers, including 90 of the Fortune 500.
Vention said Physical AI was its fastest-growing segment, with related revenue increasing 400 % over the past year. The laboratory currently has eight team members and is expanding, with more than 16 positions planned across robotics control, simulation and Physical AI research.
Dr Joelle Pineau, Chief AI Officer, Cohere, has joined as External Technical Advisor to help guide the research programme.
A key technology developed through Vention’ s Physical AI work is GRIIP, a modular pipeline launched in February 2026. It combines scene digitalisation, object segmentation, pose estimation, grasp selection and collision-free motion planning using foundation models from NVIDIA alongside Vention’ s proprietary models.
Vention also plans to release a public GRIIP software development kit, allowing engineering teams to adapt the pipeline for specific industrial requirements. The company is already working with manufacturers, including a major automotive OEM, on complex unstructured robotic tasks in final assembly in real production environments worldwide.
Bell AI Fabric plans 1.2 GW Saskatchewan AI infrastructure hub
Bell Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan have outlined plans to expand Bell AI Fabric with up to 900 MW of additional power capacity, creating a potential 1.2 GW sovereign AI infrastructure hub in the province.
The non-binding memorandum of understanding would see the additional capacity developed in phases, positioning Saskatchewan as a major Canadian centre for AI computing. Bell AI Fabric will also establish the head office of its national ecosystem in the province.
At full buildout, Bell said total capital investment covering data centre infrastructure, tenant compute and associated power generation could exceed US $ 50 billion, making it potentially the largest capital investment in Saskatchewan’ s history.
The additional power would be supplied through partnerdeveloped natural gas generation rather than relying on the provincial grid. Proposed facilities would use closed-loop cooling technology designed to require no municipal water.
Development remains subject to customer commitments, commercial agreements, permits, approvals and relevant environmental assessments.
Bell estimated the project could support between 800 and 1,200 construction, engineering and technical jobs, alongside up to 600 permanent operations and management roles. It said as many as 3,000 additional offsite and community jobs could also result.
Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, said AI infrastructure had become critical infrastructure for Canada’ s future economy.
The project aligns with Saskatchewan’ s Data Centre Framework and emphasises Canadian control, data sovereignty, local investment and infrastructure intended to support AI deployment at scale.
Bell also plans to work with Indigenous partners, suppliers and post-secondary institutions across Saskatchewan. •
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