San Francisco Frontiers - Canada buying stake in AI firm Cohere to bolster tech sovereignty

Cohere was founded in Toronto in 2019 and has tried to distinguish itself from artificial intelligence behemoths like OpenAI and Anthropic by focusing on models built for businesses and governments, with less attention paid to consumer applications.

Announcing the investment ahead of a major Canada-EU summit in Montreal, Carney said "this is the moment that will decide where AI is built, how AI is governed, and who AI serves."

"We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don't know or by those we don't trust," he added.

The concentration of AI systems in the hands of a few companies carries systemic risks, the prime minister said, warning that while those companies may profess to be "global," they "often prove national in the breach."

- Tech you 'can trust' -

Cohere is led by Aidan Gomez, an AI researcher who co-authored a seminal paper that laid the foundations for modern AI systems, underscoring the role of the Canadian AI research ecosystem in the field's development.

The company has already moved to make itself a transatlantic power insulated from US and Chinese control.

In May, Cohere announced a deal to acquire German AI firm Aleph Alpha, creating a combined entity with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin, in a deal backed by Ottawa and Berlin.

Gomez told AFP in June that Europe risks "total technological irrelevance" if it fails to develop sovereign capabilities, warning that without home-built technology, everything from defense to productivity will be partly controlled by foreigners.

At Carney's announcement on Thursday, Gomez said the federal investment is part of a funding round targeting CAN$7 billion, which would take the company to a CAN$35.7 billion valuation.

"We are now the largest AI company outside the United States and China," Gomez said.

"Around the world, organizations are looking for technology that they can trust and control, and that reflects their values," he added, pledging that Cohere would be rooted "in Canada always."

In an address to a Montreal research institute before the summit with Carney, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the Cohere-Aleph Alpha merger, citing the "strong appetite for teaming up."

Brussels and Ottawa are working on forging unprecedented levels of cooperation, including on AI policy alignment.

R.Moore--SFF