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As an eco-friendly provider of Web3 infrastructure services and solutions, thanks to a low-carbon power supply¹ and the implementation of sobriety measures (supercomputer refurbishment, waste heat recovery), Exaion is taking a new step in its international development and is strengthening its offering for North American customers by opening a branch in Canada. The aim is to enhance the cloud offering for North American players by providing them with high-performance, innovative and sovereign solutions and services in the fields of 3D cloud, metaverse, high-performance computing and blockchain.

Exaion Inc., based in Montreal and represented locally by Christophe Rodrigues, Chief Innovation Officer, will be the headquarters for the company's activities in North America. In line with the EDF Group's raison d'être, the Canadian subsidiary will deploy decentralized data centers powered by an 83% decarbonized energy mix2 and whose waste heat will be recovered and put to use. In partnership with Canadian companies, it will develop a sovereign and perfectly secure cloud offering.

To do so, Exaion Inc. will draw on the technical resources, infrastructure management expertise and unique knowhow developed by Exaion across the Web3 value chain since its creation. It will also rely on the synergies developed with the EDF Group in a number of areas such as cyber security, scientific and quantum computing, as well as energy management. Exaion Inc. will create an innovation lab in Sherbrooke to work on more responsible cloud services designed around sustainable computing.

The first decentralized data center, called "QC1", will be up and running in Sherbrooke in October 2022, in partnership with the Université de Sherbrooke. Ultimately, the goal is to deploy 20 data centers across Canada.

Fatih Balyeli, CEO and co-founder of Exaion, said: "This launch is consistent with Exaion's acceleration plan for the coming years. We firmly believe that North America holds tremendous potential for the development of a decentralized, open, more environmentally friendly and data-protected Internet. We will invest in the very first phase of this implementation to make it a success and achieve a more sustainable and green offering for professionals."

Ranked 1^st in North America and 6th in the world in terms of data centers, Quebec is a leading province in many key sectors (quantum, artificial intelligence, digital creation...) and offers many opportunities for business and technological development.

While setting up its operations in Quebec, Exaion benefited from the support and guidance of the Investissement Québec International teams: "We are pleased that Exaion has chosen to establish the headquarters of its American development in Quebec. Their choice demonstrates the attractiveness of Quebec in the technology sector. Their expertise will contribute to the development of Quebec's know-how and will strengthen the ties between industry and academia, thanks to their collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke.” - said Hubert Bolduc, President of Investissement Québec International.

¹ In France, more than 97% of the electricity generated by EDF in 2021 was CO2 emission-free, thanks to nuclear and renewable energies. EDF SA perimeter / Source: EDF

² International Energy Agency, IEA. (2022). Canada 2022 - Energy Policy Review. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/7ec2467c-78b4-4c0c-a966-a42b8861ec5a/Canada2022.pdf

About Exaion

Exaion is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the EDF Group. In line with the Group's raison d'être, it supports industries in their digital transformation towards Web3 with a responsible and sustainable approach: upgrading existing supercomputers, using low-carbon electricity³, recovering waste heat. Its mission is focused on data: accelerating processing, securing it and facilitating access and control for users. Its experts develop high-performance, innovative and sovereign solutions and services.

³ In France, more than 97% of the electricity generated by EDF in 2021 was CO2 emission-free, thanks to nuclear and renewable energies. EDF SA perimeter / Source: EDF

Information

Investissement Québec media team
medias@invest-quebec.com