MARCH 16, 2026
TELUS and Fortanix partner to bring Confidential AI to Canada, built on NVIDIA Confidential Computing
New Confidential AI solution empowers Canadian organizations to unlock secure AI at scale with cryptographic proof of protection on sovereign infrastructure
San Jose, California – TELUS and Fortanix announced a new Confidential AI solution – built on NVIDIA – that enables organizations to train and deploy AI on their most sensitive data with cryptographic proof that it remains securely within Canadian jurisdiction.
Confidential AI applies advanced encryption technology – called Confidential Computing – specifically to protect AI workloads, maintaining encryption of sensitive data even while being actively processed by the AI system. Developed jointly by TELUS and Fortanix, a leader in confidential computing security, leveraging state-of-the-art NVIDIA infrastructure at the TELUS Sovereign AI Factory, the new solution uses cryptographic attestation and secure key releases to establish a verifiable chain of trust. This ensures proprietary models, sensitive data and agent credentials remain encrypted throughout training, fine-tuning and inference.
“TELUS has built Canada’s first fully Sovereign AI infrastructure so that researchers, startups, enterprises and public institutions no longer have to choose between protecting their data and unlocking the transformative benefits of AI,” said Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer, TELUS. “This latest innovation with Fortanix and NVIDIA adds a critical, final security layer to protect data while it is actively being processed. Now, regulated organizations can deploy AI even on their most sensitive workloads, with auditable proof of protection, so they can accelerate innovation confidently without compromising their control, privacy and compliance.”
This solution, announced at NVIDIA GTC 2026 in San Jose, is particularly critical for organizations in healthcare, finance, government, and other regulated sectors, where the challenges of deploying AI and risking sensitive data exposure during processing can hamper innovation. The confidential AI solution creates an auditable, verifiable record that the environment is encrypted throughout the entire AI lifecycle.
“Trust is not implicit – it must be proven,” said Anuj Jaiswal, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Fortanix. “With verified attestation and attestation-gated secure key release, we ensure that models, data and agents are only accessible inside approved confidential environments. By combining this with TELUS' sovereign infrastructure, organizations can deploy AI on their most sensitive data with cryptographic proof of protection, all on Canadian soil.”
Before any sensitive data is decrypted, the Confidential AI solution performs a cryptographic verification of the trusted execution environment using
NVIDIA Confidential Computing
attestation services to confirm the hardware is genuine and secure. Encryption keys are released only when this verification succeeds. If the security check fails, the data remains locked. This approach provides the gates behind which sensitive data remains protected and inaccessible throughout the entire AI development and deployment process.The joint Confidential AI solution will be available through the TELUS Sovereign AI Factory on NVIDIA AI infrastructure, with Fortanix providing verified attestation and attestation-gated secure key release. To learn more, visit
telus.com/aifactory
About Fortanix
Fortanix
is the global leader in data and AI security and a pioneer of Confidential Computing
, delivering a unified platform to protect sensitive data, AI models, and applications across on-premises and multi-cloud environments—at rest, in transit, and in use. Built on hardware-enforced security, Fortanix enables workloads to run in tamper-proof, isolated enclaves, protecting against data leakage, model extraction, and unauthorized access, even from privileged insiders. As enterprises scale modern AI factories, Fortanix provides a
Confidential AI
foundation built on attestation-based trust, secure key release, and zero-trust enforcement. This ensures AI systems remain verifiable, auditable, and trustworthy—while enabling crypto agility and long-term resilience through post-quantum cryptography (PQC)
. Trusted by leading enterprises and sovereign entities in highly regulated industries and powered by an industry-standard approach to Confidential Computing supported by leading technology providers, including Intel and Microsoft, Fortanix enables organizations to safely use sensitive data and drive AI adoption with confidence. For more information, visit www.fortanix.com.