"W ith more than 400 employees and valued at $6.8 billion, Cohere is one of Canada's leading artificial intelligence companies. At first glance, it seems perfectly poised to fulfill the federal government's goals of keeping up with the global AI race and for achieving tech sovereignty from the United States. Unlike its competitors-OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic-Cohere doesn't offer a flagship consumer chatbot like ChatGPT; instead, it builds large language models and AI programs for businesses and governments. Over the summer, Cohere signed agreements with the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom to incorporate AI into the public sector. It also announced a partnership with Bell Canada, whereby Cohere's AI infrastructure will be available to Bell's customers, and Bell will become Cohere's "preferred Canadian AI infrastructure provider.""
"Launched in 2019, the company was built by homegrown talent: co-founder and chief executive officer Aiden Gomez, who completed his undergrad at the University of Toronto, previously interned for AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and Lukasz Kaiser at Google Brain, and in 2017, co-authored an influential paper that helped pave the way for the creation of LLMs. And for now, the company seems intent on staying Canadian. At a conference in June, Gomez-along with leaders from Wealthsimple and Shopify-insisted that, in order for the country's tech sector to grow, its entrepreneurs had to resist the lure of US acquisition. But look beyond those qualifications, and Cohere starts to lose its sheen. For one, the company leans heavily on American tech. In 2024, Cohere received $240 million in federal funding to support building a $725 million data centre in Cambridge, Ontario. The funding is part of the $2 billion Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy aimed at increasing the country's national capacity to develop AI products and support AI infrastructure. Cohere will reportedly use the funding to partner with CoreWeave, a US AI inf"
Cohere employs over 400 people and is valued at $6.8 billion. The company builds large language models and AI programs for businesses and governments rather than consumer chatbots. Cohere signed agreements with the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom and partnered with Bell Canada to offer its AI infrastructure, with Bell named Cohere's "preferred Canadian AI infrastructure provider." Founded in 2019 by Aiden Gomez and other Canadian talent, the company emphasizes remaining Canadian. Cohere relies heavily on American technology and funding, including $240 million in federal support for a $725 million Cambridge data centre as part of a $2 billion national strategy.
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