Dubai-based physical AI company Ahoy is relocating its research and development operations to Montréal, where it plans to hire approximately 200 people as it builds a new applied research lab and deepens its relationship with Mila.
Announced at Startupfest Montréal, the move will establish the Quebec city as Ahoy’s second global headquarters, primary R&D hub, and base for its North American operations.
The company expects to recruit talent across research, engineering, and go-to-market functions.
Ahoy estimates that its expansion will support another 300 jobs among consulting, engineering, systems integration, and implementation partners, bringing the potential ecosystem-wide impact to 500 positions.
The company operates through a partner-led model that relies on outside firms to help deploy its technology for customers.
Founded in 2018, Ahoy develops infrastructure that allows AI systems to perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and take action in physical environments.
Its technology is designed for uses such as transportation networks, aviation, utilities, logistics, smart infrastructure, and government operations.
Unlike many generative AI systems that operate primarily through cloud-based language models, Ahoy’s technology processes video, audio, sensor, and operational data closer to where it is collected.
Its systems can run on devices, at the edge, on an organization’s own servers, or in air-gapped environments where sensitive information cannot leave the premises.
The company’s planned Montréal facility is being described as an open Physical AI Lab. It will function as an applied research centre and testing ground where new capabilities can be developed before being deployed in real-world environments.
Research conducted through Ahoy’s Trouvé Labs division will also feed into its work with Mila, the Montréal-based artificial intelligence institute.
Ahoy first announced its Mila partnership in May at Web Summit Vancouver. The two organizations said they would pursue research involving physical, sovereign, and edge AI, supported by a dedicated group of doctoral researchers.
Ahoy appointed Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Hood Khizer and Chief Technologist Dr. Benoit Julien to lead its engagement with Mila’s faculty and student community.
The Montréal expansion builds on several Canadian commitments disclosed by Ahoy earlier this year.
In May, the company named Montréal as its North American headquarters and announced an agreement to acquire local business-process automation startup Wrk Technologies.
Wrk’s technology is designed to coordinate automated workflows across application programming interfaces, legacy software, AI models, and tasks that still require human participation.
Ahoy intends to combine that execution technology with its own perception and orchestration platform.
The company says its systems are already deployed across the Middle East, North America, Europe, and other markets.
Ahoy also says it surpassed US$100 million in annual recurring revenue during its 2025 fiscal year, although that figure has not been independently verified.
For Montréal, the arrival of Ahoy’s central R&D operation brings another international AI company into an ecosystem anchored by Mila and the city’s universities, researchers, and engineering workforce.
It also creates a new destination for Canadian researchers and technologists interested in moving beyond chatbots and generative software toward AI systems that interact directly with infrastructure and the physical world.