Microsoft Canada announced a series of significant investments across Canada, including moving its Canadian headquarters to a brand new CIBC Square office tower.
The new 132,000 square-foot headquarters (still under construction) is expected to open its doors September 2020 and will span four floors of the new CIBC Square on Bay Street. This expansion will lead to 60,000 new jobs and even more collaboration with Microsoft partners.
Canada a “global leader” in tech
“Increasingly, Canada is being recognized as a global leader in technology and the investments we are making today and into the future will help ensure Canada continues to be a hotbed of innovation,” said Kevin Peesker, president of Microsoft Canada, in a statement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau credited the federal government’s Innovation and Skills Plan for the Microsoft Canada’s latest announcement.
“Leading tech companies are setting up offices across Canada, hiring Canadian talent, and investing in Canada’s enormous potential as an innovation and tech hub. Microsoft’s latest investment in Canada – totalling $570 million – will create hundreds of new jobs and benefit several cities, from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal. I know our highly-skilled, diverse workforce will continue to attract tech investment in record numbers – growing our economy and creating new opportunities for Canadians across the country,” Trudeau said in a statement.
Microsoft also plans to invest $21 million in Azure credits to Canada’s Supercluster initiative, in addition to another $10 million over five years into the Cascadia innovation corridor, formed between Washington and British Columbia.
Lastly, over the next three years, Microsoft Canada says it will invest more than $570 million in fixed assets into the relocation and expansion of its research and development lab in Montreal, relocation of its Vancouver sales office, renovation and redesign of its Ottawa, Calgary and Montreal sales offices, and the relocation of its Canadian Headquarters.