Prime minister made funding announcement at AI research institute Mila.
Toronto-based AI company Cohere hopes to secure as much as $7 billion CAD in new financing to help it meet rising global demand for sovereign AI.
The AI company announced these plans and an initial close of its planned Series E on Thursday at Montréal AI research hub Mila, where the federal government revealed that it would be pouring $1.6 billion into Cohere as part of this round.
Cohere plans to put the capital toward computing infrastructure investment, and developing and delivering its AI models and other products to enterprises and governments. Cohere said that the fundraise—the largest-ever undertaken by a Canadian startup—is set to value the company at nearly $36 billion. This would make Cohere, Canada’s entrant in the frontier model race, the country’s most valuable private technology firm.
“This is a huge honour, not only for Cohere but for the country as the government’s investment highlights Canada’s leadership in the global AI revolution,” Cohere co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez said in a statement. “Our company is one of the few building [AI] that is changing the world.”
Cohere said Europe’s Schwarz Group has committed to leading the financing, with support from a combination of new institutional and strategic investors like the Government of Canada, Bell Ventures, and Bullhound Capital. Existing backers Inovia Capital, Nvidia, and Prosperity7 Ventures are also participating.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the news on the first day of the Canada-European Union Summit. Carney is hosting the event to further strengthen economic and strategic ties between Canada and the EU as it seeks to forge a middle-power alliance to decrease its dependence on the US.
“In just seven years, Cohere has grown from a Toronto startup into a global company. It’s a Canadian success story being written before our eyes. And now, Canada has a stake in it,” Carney said.
Carney said the feds would be investing on a “commercial basis.”.He added that under this investment, Cohere will stay Canadian and open doors for the next generation of AI leaders through research partnerships.
Earlier the same day, Carney released Canada’s first national security strategy in 20 years. “Sovereignty now requires secure access to semiconductors, critical minerals, payment systems, clean energy technologies, vaccines, space-based communications, and artificial intelligence. Building these capabilities underpins our economic, foreign policy, and defence strategies,” he said
Both Canadian officials and the country’s AI industry have been working more closely with European counterparts this year. AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon announced more collaboration with Germany’s digital minister at ALL IN in September; Cohere is in the final steps of acquiring Germany’s Aleph Alpha and, this month, bought Czech cybersecurity AI startup Aisle.
Feature image courtesy Mark Carney via LinkedIn.
With files from Sarah Rieger.