Canada is investing CAD 1.6 billion (CZK 25 billion) in Cohere, an artificial intelligence (AI) company. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced this today, promising that Canada will not leave AI in the hands of those it does not trust. The news was reported by AFP.
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Owner of Lidl and Kaufland leads massive AI investment: Canada’s Cohere heads toward a CAD 36 billion valuation
Cohere was founded in Toronto in 2019. It is trying to position itself as an independent alternative to the American AI giants. In May, the company announced it had agreed to acquire the German firm Aleph Alpha, which also works in artificial intelligence. The deal created an entity with two headquarters, in Toronto and Berlin. The transaction was backed by both the Canadian and German governments and was seen as a first step toward weakening the dominance of the US and China in the AI sector.
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez attended Carney’s announcement. He said the federal funds are part of a funding round aiming to raise CAD 7 billion. The company’s market value is expected to rise to CAD 35.7 billion as a result.
The latest funding round is led by Germany’s Schwarz Group, which owns the Lidl and Kaufland chains and which held more than 20 percent of Aleph Alpha’s shares. It decided to invest in the Canadian company also to develop its cloud services. Its technology division, Schwarz Digits, plans to run Cohere’s models on its STACKIT cloud platform. Other investors include chipmaker Nvidia and Bell Canada, a subsidiary of the Canadian telecommunications company BCE.
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A data-focused alternative to OpenAI: Cohere to invest CAD 1.7 billion and eyes a stock market listing
“We are now the largest AI company outside the United States and China,” Gomez said. He described the government investment as a great honor.
Carney stressed that Cohere will remain a Canadian company and will create more opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses. He added that by 2030 the company will invest at least CAD 1.7 billion in new computing infrastructure in Canada. Cohere specializes in so-called sovereign artificial intelligence, which allows companies and governments to have greater control over their data and AI operations. Unlike competitors such as OpenAI or Anthropic, it focuses exclusively on corporate customers and government institutions.
Its technology can run in a private cloud, on the customer’s own infrastructure, or in a separate environment, independent of the large American data center operators. This is particularly important for regulated industries that need to ensure data protection and compliance with strict rules on data processing. According to Gomez, the new capital will go toward expanding the development of models, infrastructure and global expansion. Industry insiders also speak of a possible preparation for a stock market listing, which would allow the company to further strengthen its market position, the DPA agency reported.
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Source: ÄŒTK
