Two claims, both checkable
Mila, the Quebec AI Institute, traces back to a research lab Yoshua Bengio founded in 1993, and describes itself as the world's largest academic research centre for deep learning, with a community of more than 1,400 people as of 2022–23. Bengio shared the 2018 Turing Award with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun for foundational work in the field.
What that combination produces
Two entirely different digital economies sharing one city: deep academic AI research feeding into applied industry on one side, and one of the largest concentrations of game-development talent anywhere on the other. Startup Genome's 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report ranked Montreal 39th globally, holding steady against 2024.
Montreal is also officially bilingual and culturally distinct from the rest of Canada — French is the primary working language for most local business, a real difference from Toronto or Vancouver.
The buyer
Technically capable and comfortable with both languages professionally, but expecting French for anything consumer-facing. The AI-research layer is international and English-dominant; the wider city runs in French.
The practical read
Offer French, not just English — this is the one Canadian city in this series where that isn't optional for reaching the local market properly.
Sources
Caveats and sourcing
- Verifiable — Mila's founding lineage and self-described scale, the 2018 Turing Award, and Ubisoft Montreal's size.
- Characterising claims — the language-expectation guidance is interpretation, though Quebec's official bilingual/French-primary status is a matter of public record.