The Canadian government is taking a direct stake in an AI company.
On 10-29, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the federal government will invest up to CAD 1.6 billion in Toronto-based Cohere in stages, on commercial terms. The announcement came alongside a Series E led by Schwarz Group, targeting up to CAD 7 billion at a post-money valuation of CAD 35.7 billion. New investors include Bell Ventures and Bullhound; existing investors NVIDIA, Inovia, and Prosperity7 are also participating.
The largest private financing in Canadian history. The conditions are set in stone:
1️⃣ The company and its headquarters must remain in Canada
2️⃣ Invest at least CAD 1.7 billion in local computing capacity by 2030
3️⃣ Create at least 1,000 high-skilled technical jobs in Canada
The bigger picture: Canada wants a third path to frontier AI beyond the US and China. Cohere just merged with Germany’s Aleph Alpha, focusing on controllable data for enterprises and governments, including in regulated sectors. I wrote about Mistral’s open-source release this morning; tonight, Canada is putting money in and taking a stake—the sovereign AI story is becoming clearer. NVIDIA sells the shovels, and doesn’t miss out on either side.
Filtering, not educating. Not investment advice.
Source: pm.gc.ca + Cohere PR Newswire
On 10-29, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the federal government will invest up to CAD 1.6 billion in Toronto-based Cohere in stages, on commercial terms. The announcement came alongside a Series E led by Schwarz Group, targeting up to CAD 7 billion at a post-money valuation of CAD 35.7 billion. New investors include Bell Ventures and Bullhound; existing investors NVIDIA, Inovia, and Prosperity7 are also participating.
The largest private financing in Canadian history. The conditions are set in stone:
1️⃣ The company and its headquarters must remain in Canada
2️⃣ Invest at least CAD 1.7 billion in local computing capacity by 2030
3️⃣ Create at least 1,000 high-skilled technical jobs in Canada
The bigger picture: Canada wants a third path to frontier AI beyond the US and China. Cohere just merged with Germany’s Aleph Alpha, focusing on controllable data for enterprises and governments, including in regulated sectors. I wrote about Mistral’s open-source release this morning; tonight, Canada is putting money in and taking a stake—the sovereign AI story is becoming clearer. NVIDIA sells the shovels, and doesn’t miss out on either side.
Filtering, not educating. Not investment advice.
Source: pm.gc.ca + Cohere PR Newswire