Future spin-off of the NRC’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre
Backgrounder
May 4, 2026 – Ottawa, Ontario
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC)’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) is the only end-to-end pure play compound semiconductor facility in North America.
The CPFC is a 40,000-square-foot facility with 11,000 square feet of clean room space. Its highly skilled workers design, refine, make and test compound semiconductor wafers for companies worldwide to bring their products to market.
Budget 2025 indicated that the Government of Canada would explore options to seek private capital to scale the operations of the CPFC to serve as a platform for Canadian innovation and new photonic applications. Semiconductors are foundational to Canada’s innovation economy, enabling technologies that drive productivity, competitiveness and national security. Strengthening domestic semiconductor capabilities is critical to Canada’s security and prosperity.
After 20 years of growth and success, the CPFC has reached a level of maturity that requires a new commercial operating model. Transitioning the facility into a commercial entity will provide the agility and investment capacity needed to scale quickly and meet the rising global demand for photonics manufacturing.
Spinning off the CPFC will help attract private-sector capital to scale its operations, expand the Canadian supply chain of photonic industrial capabilities and provide more effective and timely services to fast-growing Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises at the forefront of AI compute innovation. It will also advance government priorities to support Canada’s growth and sovereign capacity in semiconductor, AI and quantum technology innovation.
The NRC is partnering with the Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV) to structure the process to engage with investors and spin off the CPFC. The process will proceed on a timeline commensurate with the Government of Canada’s commitment to secure commercial and other partners to fulfill the facility’s potential to catalyze the growth of a world-class industrial capability in Canada.